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3 < 




MRS. SARA T. KINNEY 
STATK RKGKNT CONNECTICUT DAUGHTERS OK THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



CHAPTER SKETCHES 

Connecticut 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



patron Saints 



EDITED BY 

MARY FHILOTHETA ROOT, A. B. 
Katkcriih' Gavlord Chapter, Bristol 

IVith an Iiitrodiictioii by 
CHARLES FREDERICK JOHNSON, A. /A. 



« « « « 



PUBLISHED KY 

CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

SOLD BY 

THE EDWARD P. JUDD CO 
NEW HAVEN 



THE LIBRARY OF 
C«NGReSS, 

Two Copies Received 

iUL. 15 1901 

COPymOHT ENTRV 

CLASS ^XXa No. 
COPY A. 



^n 



h 



5 



.QJ" 



^% 



The dailiiiavst thing in hisiorj — siiiiph- ///<//'.— DONALD G. MITCHELL. 

IVe owe it to the generations thiit go he/ore us, and to those u'hich come after 
us, to perpetuate the vieinorv and example of those who in a signal manner made 
themselves serviceable to humanitr.—¥REDEKlCK DOUGLASS. 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1901 
bv Mary Philotheta Root. 



TLE, MOREHOUSE & TAVLOR CO., NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



/ 



by a unanimous vote of 
The Regents and Delegates of The Connecticut Chai'tf.rs 

TO 

MRS. SARA T. KINNEY 

State Regent 

whose long and harmonious regency has been conspicuous FOR 

ITS MANY achievements, AND WHOSE WISE LEADERSHIP HAS 

WON DISTINCTION AND HONOR FOR CONNECTICUT 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN 

REVOLUTION 




BADGE OF OKI-ICE l-'OK THE REGENT OF CONNECTICUT. 



I \'i>ted by the Chapter Regents and Delegates February, 1900. Designed and 
made by Tiffany & Co. of New York.) 



NTRODUCTION 




N a letter from America M. Gaston Deschamps 
says in Le Temps of the 31st of March, 1901 : "On 
trouve encore dans hi capitale du Connecticut ces 
vestiges clu passe auxquels les Americains ne 
sauraient renoncer sans detruire leurs titres de noblesse. A 
vrai dire, ce passe n'est pas encore tres lointain. . . . Mais ces 
reliques peu agees rappellent des souvenirs tres grand et tres 
beaux." The monographs which make up this book are intended 
to preserve some "vestiges" of this "not very distant past." 
They have been prepared by members of the Connecticut Chapters 
of tlie Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. 
Each of the writers has had some special preparation for her 
special task bv reason of descent or personal interest in the sub- 
ject. In addition to the ordinary sources of historical informa- 
tion, family letters have been drawn upon and family tradition — 
carefully sifted— has been utilized to fill out the outlines fur- 
nished bv documentary evidence. Absolute historical accuracy 
has been the controlling aim, although interest in the subject of 
the sketch has in many cases made the labor a labor of love, and 
the pride of a great-grandchild in an honored ancestress has in 
several cases been the impelling motive. It will be found, too, 
that personal familiarity with the old home — in some cases still 
the home of the family — the old pictures, the old furniture, and 
whatever else of the original surroundings has survived, has given 
the peculiar color to the narrative which is the mark of intimate 
knowledge and friendly appreciation. The writers are describing 
something that they honor and love and something that has been 
long in their hearts. 

The prime object of these memoirs is of course to conserve the 
memorv of the women of Connecticut in the Revolutionary 



vi Iniroductioii. 

period. It is a worthy object. The men who set their hands to 
the Declaration or to the Constitution, who spoke and wrote for 
the cause or commanded the " embattled farmers " to " fire the shot " 
which, accordini^ to Mr. Emerson, was heard at such i^reat dis- 
tances, were naturally mvich in the public eye. Their names have 
become "familiar in our mouths as household words." The 
women who sustained the cause at no less sacrifice — perhaps more 
— than their husbands and sons had made, rendered as valuable 
service witii comparatively little prospect of promotion. No 
great social struggle can be brought to a successful issue without 
the active support of women, not necessarily organized into soci- 
eties or clubs but at least sustaining and encouraging as individ- 
uals. Men fight for what women believe in. Our Revolution 
was a community interest; the great body of the unknown 
soldiers were in it not because they were paid nor for the love of 
adventure but because they believed in the necessity and propriety 
of it. ?2xcept in the strongest characters, like Washington, such 
faith needs to be strengthened by sympathy from others. As a 
state, Connecticut had less reason to complain of the mother- 
country than had Massachusetts. Its charter made it substantially 
a self-governing, free state and its rights were not threatened, and, 
after the repeal of the stamp act, there was no overt act at which 
it could take ahirm for itself. Its people joined the cause largely 
from principle and sympathy, yet it furnished as large a quota in 
proportion to its population as did any other state. The charac- 
teristic of the Revolutionary spirit in Connecticut, that it was 
more than elsewhere a matter of principle — even of sentiment — 
makes the part that women bore in it more significant in our own 
state than it was elsewhere. 

I'or us, their descendants, however, these memoires of the digni- 
fied and executive dames of old Connecticut have much more 
than a merely historical value. To know what noble and devoted 
\vomen our great-grandmothers were can hardly fail to increase 
our self-respect and our rational patricjtism and to strengthen our 
ambition to be worthy of our heritage. As Burke says, "Our 
liberty becomes a noble freedom. It has its bearings and its 
ensigns armorial." The simplicity of life and the stately but gra- 
cious formalilv of manner that marked the i8th centurv has not 



Iiifroiliictioii. vii 

only a singular attraction for us but it is "good unto edification." 
This book is for Connecticut what the roll of Battle Abbey is for 
England and it is far more a reason for sober pride to find an 
ancestress in it than it can be for an Englishman to read his sur- 
name in the list of William the Norman's predatory captains. 
\ot that it establishes an aristocracy of blood — we recognize noth- 
ing of the sort, and the great body of unheralded women who in 
humbler spheres cheered and sustained their husbands and sons in 
the Revolutionary army are no less to be honored than those who 
are commemorated in this book — but it establishes a standard of 
womanly character ; it shows us that whatever is creditable and 
of good report in our citizenship has a past in which it was 
rooted. We are degenerate if such a past, though " not very 
remote." is not an inspiration. 

Though memoirs of the kind which make up this book are not 
history in the ordinarv sense, they throw a great deal of light on 
history. They disclose manners and general tone of thought far 
more tlian state papers or narratives of militarv campaigns can. 
They recall the thousand little events that make up life, which are 
set in the great movements that make up historv like the coloring 
inside the lines of a picture. History proper can be read with 
especial interest after a study of the private lives of the people 
and the households of the period. It then becomes far more 
intelligible and far more real. We come almost to know the 
characters personally. Possiblv some of the figures seem less 
austere and ideal but thev are much more human. We begin to 
understand that men and women in the past were actuated by 
fundamentallv the same motives that actuate them to-day. Then 
we come to understand the " spirit of the age," or that set of mo- 
tives which has more power in one century than in another. For 
this reason this book may be said to have a permanent value as 
history since it serves to interpret liistory. But it is primarily a 
collection of material and a tribute to the Connecticut women of 
the Revolution from their descendants in the 20th century. As 
such, it has its proprietv and its chief interest. 

Charles Frederick Joliiison. 

Trinity College, H.\rtfurd. 



Dcrifxihui Committee. 

Miss Mary P. Root, Katherine Giulord Chapter. Bristol 

Mrs. Charles J. Parker, Esther Stanley Chapter, New Britain 

Miss Alice Norton, Emma Hart Willard Chapter, Berlin 

Miss Julia E. Smith, westerly, r. i.. 

Anna Warner Bailey Chapter, Groton and Stonini^ton 

Committee tor Collectiiui /ll^ateiial from the Cbapter^. 

Miss Mary P. Root iChainnau), Katherine Gaylord Chapter, Bristol 
Mrs. William T. Elmer, Wadsworth Chapter, Middletown 

Miss Anne A. McAlister, ^ ^ ^lap Wooster Chapter, 

1 Resigned) L - ' ' ' 

Mrs. George F. Newcomb, \ New Haven 

Mrs. Lorenzo Litchfield, Anne Wood Elderkin Chapter, Willimantic 
Miss Julia E. Smith, Mesieru-, r. i., 

Anna Warner Bailey Chapter, Groton and Stonington 
Miss Alice Norton, Emma Hart Willard Chapter, Berlin 

Mrs. Charles J. Parker, Esther Stanley Chapter, New Britain 

Committee tor Seeuriuii Subscriptions from the Cbainers. 

Mrs. Rueus W. Bunnell {Chainnan), Mary Silliman Chapter, Bridgeport 
Mrs. James K. Crofut, Abigail Phelps Chapter, Simsbury 

Mrs. O. V. Coffin, Wadsworth Chapter, Middletown 

Miss Mary E. Benjamin, 

Anna Warner Bailey Chapter, Groton and Stonington 
Mrs. B. C. Kennard, Ruth Hart Chapter, Meriden 

Mrs. Andrew J. Coe, Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter, Meriden 

^Finance Committee. 

Mrs. T. B. Warren 'Cluiinnan), Mary Silliman Chapter, Bridgeport 
Mrs. Mary Hepburn-Smith, Freelove Baldwin Stow Chapter, Miltord 
Mrs. L. D. a. Alexander, 

Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter, New Canaan 



FOREWORD 




IT IS book contains tlie contributions of about sixty 
writers and is the result of more than three years' 
work. It originated in the desire of the Connecticut 
D. A. R. to collect and preserve the records of the 
men and women for whom the chapters are named, and from 
small beginnings has grown into a book of the present size. 

Early in the organization of the Connecticut D. A. R. the cus- 
tom was established of naming a chapter for some w^oman whose 
husband or sons gave their services to the Revolutionary struggle, 
or because the woman herself is noted for endurance, sacrifice or 
service. Of the forty-four chapters in the state thirty-four are 
named for women, representing various grades of service — from 
the governor's wife to the wife of a private soldier. Three are 
named for men — ^heroes in statesmanship and war and the hero- 
spv. Seven chapters commemorate in their names not persons 
but localities. Three are named for coast towns near the enemy's 
camp in New York which suffered from invasion. Four are for 
interior towns, whose direct connection with the conflict consisted 
in the passing of soldiers over their highways. 

Although each chapter chose its name for local reasons, and 
although these biographers have worked independently of each 
other, there exists in these sketches an evident historic sequence 
which the committee voted should decide the questi(jn of order. 
Therefore instead of following the seniority order or the alphabet- 
ical, the present plan was adopted, which is a series of groups. 
As a result there is a procession of Revolutionary worthies led by 
Faith Trumbull with her governor-husband and closing with 
Nathan Hale the martyr-spy. 

First is a group representing the civil power — governor, colon- 
ial secretary, council of safety ; next and largest is a series of 



X Fore7i>ord. 

groups representing the military power — generals, colonels, 
majors, captains ; relief service comes next and is followed by a 
group of heroines; next is a group o! towns in two divisions 
according to their location ; lastly is Nathan Hale, whose name 
has been given to the latest born of Connecticut chapters. 

This procession, representative of all sections of the state and 
of all grades of service, does not include every one in Connecticut 
who won distinction in the Revolutionary struggle. Several like 
Matthew Griswold, deputy-governor, and the generals, Parsons, 
Spencer, Huntington, Saltonstall, Dyer, Tyler, Ward, Douglas, 
Newberry, and Colonel Knowlton and Major Sheldon are con- 
spicuous for their absence. And of that notable body of men 
who served on tlie governor's council onlv a few are found in this 
procession. The same is true of officers in the armv, onlv a few 
are here, others not having a place because no chapter has taken 
their name. 

Therefore an injustice seems to have been done to manv who 
served with even greater distinction than some who pass in this 
procession. But owing to the large amount of material it was 
impossible to include in tiiis vohime any except biograi:)hies of the 
so-called chapter heroines or patron saints. The writers in the 
chapters named for places, not being limited in subject to one 
character, have done fuller justice to their Revolutionary families 
— certain of these sketches being models of their kind. 

Accuracy and completeness have been the two points aimed at 
by the committee. To insure completeness much time was 
required to secure material of real value and it was necessary to 
keep the writers informed of the progress in other chapters in 
order that the workers might inspire each other before publication 
instead of after and that when the book appeared each chapter 
should be satisfied at least with the completeness of its sketch. 

To insure accuracy the sketches were first read before the chap- 
ters or the local boards and duly approved by the chapter authori- 
ties. The writers have also quoted references used in their work 
and the names of those who supplied family traditions. Besides 
each subject has been studied by at least two members of the 
revision ctmimittee, working independently, and all papers have 
been doubly verified as far as possible. Lastlv all sketches were 



Foreword. xi 

sent in the proof sheets to the writers for final examination, and 
approval and each writer is responsible for statements made over 
her signature. 

The Committees wish to thank the chapter regents and other 
officers for their prompt responses to the many demands on their 
time and resources. To those who gave definite assistance in pre- 
paring the sketches due recognition is given in footnotes and 
addenda. Others have given valued aid in many other ways, 
unmindful of rewards or recognition — ample testimony that the 
Connecticut D. A. R. (like their great-grandmothers whom thev 
wish to honor) fail ncjt in constancy and enthusiasm in a good 
cause. 

Thanks are also due to several who are not members of this 
order, aside from those mentioned in foot-notes and addenda, 
especially to The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., who have given 
every possible assistance in the work of publication. 

A few illustrations are from plates purchased bv the chapters or 
kindly loaned by the owners for use in this book. Manv are 
from photographs made expressly for this work. A few half-tone 
cuts were made bv tlie Stoddard Engraving Co., New Haven ; 
most of them were made by the Hartford Engraving Co., who 
from difficult subjects and some poor photography have produced 
certain fine illustrations in this book. 

M. P. R. 
Bristol, Conn., 

June 28, 1901. 



CHRONOLOGICAL REGISTER 

OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN 

REVOLUTION 



Xame. 

// 'ads7vorth C hapter, 

Middletown. 
Liicrctia Shaiu Chapter, 

New London. 
Ruth Wyllys Chapter, 

Hartford. 
Nor7valk Chapter, 

Xorwalk. 
Melicciit Porter Chapter, 

Waterbury. 
Rutii Hart Chapter, 

Meriden. 
Mary Woostcr ChajHer, 

Danburv. 
Mary Clap Woostcr Chapter, 

New Haven. 
Roger S/wn/ia/i Chapter, 

New Milford. 
Fanny Lcdyard Chapter, 

Mystic. 
Anna Warner Bailey Chapter, 

Groton and Stonington. 
Sarah Riggs Humphreys Cha])ter, 

Derby. 
Abigail Phelps Chapter, 

Sinisburv. 



Date of OrganizHtion. 

Feb. I, 1892. 

Oct. 21, 1892. 

Nov. 18, 1892. 

Dec. 16, 1S92. 

Jan. 27, 1893. 

Feb. I, 1893. 

March 15, 1893. 

April 21, 1S93. 

May 8, 1893. 

June 8, 1893. 

Sept. 13, 1893. 

Oct. 1 1, 1893. 

Nov. 1 1 , 1893. 



Charter Dated. 

Feb. 20, 1892 

April 17, 1893 
Jan. 6, 1893 

June 26, 1896 

Sept. 29, 1893 
April 8, 1893 
April 9, 1893 
Oct. 4, 1893 
Jan. 9, 1896 

Feb. 19, 1894 

April 26, 1894 
April 4, 1894 
Mav 8, 1894 



Hi'gisfer of Connecticut Cliaptcrs. xiii 

Name. Date of Organization. Charter Dated. 

Faith Truinbiill Chapter, Nov. 24, 1893. April 26, 1S94 

Norwich. 

Dorothy Ripley Chapter, Dec. 14, 1893. Jan. 16, 1S94 

Southport. 
Mary Sill i man QA\-A.^\.>i\'^ Jan. 15, 1894. June 15, 1895 

Bridgeport. 
Eunice Den /lie Burr C\\'^]ilCY, April 19, 1894. May n, 1894 

Fairfield. 
Katherine 6^c?i7r^/7/ Chapter, x\pril 19, 1894. July 5, 1894 

Bristol. 
Sarah Ludlow Chapter, May 2, 1894. April 15, 1S95 

Seymour. 
Elizabeth Clarke Hull Ch^i^^ittr, June 28, 1894. Dec. 12, 1895 

Ansonia. 
Hannah Benedict Carter Ciiapter, Sept. 14, 1894. Oct. 24, 1894 

New Canaan. 
Anne Jl'ood Elde/-hi/i Chnplev, Noy. 25, 1894. April 12, 1S95 

Willimantic. 
Esther Stanley Chapter, Noy. 30, 1894. Noy. 30, 1S04 

New Britain. 
Sta ni/o rd Cha.pter, Dec. 4, 1894. Oct. 21, 1895 

Stamford. 
Abigail Wolcott Elhii'orth Chapter, Dec. S, 1894. March 25, 1895 

Windsor. 
Enuna Hart ]]'illard Ch^-piGV, Feb. 18,1895. May 29,1896 

Berlin. 
(9/-/^7;7/ /'(?;7V// Chapter, May 4,1895. Aug. 21,1895 

South Manchester. 
Deborah Avery Putnam Ch:i\)tQ\-, xMay 8,1895. ]^^^y 3'^, ^'^9^ 

Plainfield. 
Sabra T^/v//;/^//// Chapter, May , 1895. June 3, 1896 

Rockyille. 
Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter, Oct. i, 1895. Dec. 2, 1895 

Meriden. 



Jifgistcr of Couneciiciit Chapters. 



Name. Date of Organization. 

Torrington Chapter, March 24, 1896. 

Torrington. 
Freclovc Baldwin Sfim' Chapter, March 27, 1896. 

Milford. 
Si7>/>// Dii'/g/// A'i/// Clmptcr, Nov. 5, 1896 

Suffield. 
Elizabeth Portt')- Putnam Q\\7i\)\.tx, May 14, 1897 

Putnam. 
Anne Bre7>.'ster Fanning C\\^Y)\.G.\\ liiiic 18, 1897 

Jewett City. 
Hannah JVoodrnff Chapter, 

Southington. 
Al>i Huniaston Chapter, 

Thomaston. 
Green Woods Chapter, 

Wi listed. 



Putnam Hill Chapter, 

Greenwich. 
Judea Chapter. 

Washington, 
Martha Pitkin Jl'olcott Ciiapter, 

East Hartford. 
Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter, 

Litchfield. 



June 25, 1897 

July 8, 1897 

Dec. 22, 1897 

Dec. 28, 1897 

June 9, 1898 

Dec. 6, 1898 

Xov. I 7, 1899 



Sarah W'illiavis Danielson Chapter, Feb. 10, 1900 

Killinglv. 
Nathan Hale Memorial Q\vA\)\.f^\-, June 6, 1900 

East Haddam. 



Charter Dated. 

May 29, 1896 
Aug. 8, 1896 
March 12, 1897 

June 15, 1897 

Dec. 27, 1897 

Nov. 30, 1897 

Dec. 27, 1897 
Feb. 2, 1898 
Feb. 2, 1898 

June 30, 1898 

Jan. 27, 1899 

Dec. 22, 1899 

May 19, 1900 
Nov. 6, 1900 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER NAMES REl'RESE.NTIXG COiNNECTICUT STATESMEN 
OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Faith Trumbull, Ellen Kilboumc Bishop, i 

T?TT'p« \v^'TTvc S Marx Kiugsbiirv Talcott, 

/ liar net A. II /ut)iiori\ ' 



Roger Sherman. 



Charlotte B. Be/i/iett, 

Alice C. Bost7C'lck, ^^ 

T ^,\T i Louise McCox North, 

Tames W adsworth, 1 r- ^ r /-; ' A'\ 

-* ' ( Kate L. Elmer, ^^ 

K \\T -c \ Sarah Preston Bii<rbee, 

Anne Wood Elderkin, \ c- 7 ,ir ^- t-^^ ^^ 

' ( Sarah Martin Haxaen, ■^-^ 

Eunice Dennie Burr, Frank Samuel Child, 65 

Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth, Mary E. H. Poiver, 79 

Lucretia Shaw, Jane Richards Perkins, 91 

CHAPTER NAMES REPRESENTING CONNECTICUT GENERALS 
OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Mary Clap Wooster, Virginia Hubbard Curtis, loi 

Mary Wooster, Helen Meeker, 116 

Elizabeth Porter Putnam, Abbie Page Daniels, 125 

Deborah Avery Putnam, Julia M. Andrews, 136 

Mary Silliman, Martha Ediuards Beach, 149 

Martha Pitkin Wolcott, Elizabeth E. JI'. S/errx, 173 

Ruth Hart, Elisabeth Hall Upham, 187 

chapter names REPRESENTING CONNECTICUT COLONELS AND MAJORS 
OF THE REVOLUTION. 

r Jane deForest Sbelton, 

Sarah Riggs Humphreys, -■ Nancy O. Phillips, 209 

( Maria JF. Pinney, 

Elizabeth Clarke Hull, Afary Josephine Clark, 224 

Abigail Phelps, Eleaimr Crandall Phelps, 238 

Mary Floyd Tall:\iai)GE, Elizabeth C Bar/ny Buel, 256 

Esther Stanley, Katharine M. Brooks, 279 

Melicent Porter, Marx Cook, 291 



L !>///! iin 



SiHUii. I)\vk;ht Kknt, Helen M. Ki/ii-, 298 

\ Afixrnida C. Butler Robinson. 
Sakam Wn.MAMS UANIF.1.SON, -^ ^^^^^, j, Danielson, ^°^ 

tllAl'TI-K NAMKS RF.PRFSENTING CONNECTICL'T CAPTAINS 
OK THK REVOLUTION. 

IIwNAii WooDKiKK, £llen Tiittle Levels, 305 

Hannah Bk.nkdki' Caktkr, Cornelia Carter Con/stock, 315 

Sauk A TKiMnri.i., jMay Risley Adams, 321 

^ Ida Browning Ladd, 

Annk Bkkwstkk Fanninc, - Sop/iia L. Bennett Bnrn/iani, 324 

( Roberta Hallani Burleson, 

(IIAI'IKK N\.MKS REI'RKSENTINC. PERSONAL SERVICE OR ENDIRANCE. 

1 )i ikt > III V R iiM.KV, Rebekah Wheeler Ponieroy Bulkier, 328 

I- ,j .- \ Sara// i\'. Stoiu, „ 

1' K IK 1.0 VI-. Hai.dwin Slow, - ,,, ,. '„■,/ 7 ^-8 

( Mary Meru<in iibbals, ^^ 

Sarah Lidi.ow, Julia A. DuBois James, 342 

\vv» vrvov... Ti.,,.-,- \ Harriet Trumbull Palmer, 

ANNA \> AkNIk liAILl-.\, . i r t^ j t r, ■ ^=;^ 

I Alary hddye Benjamin, ■^•^■^ 

Fanny Lkhvakd, Harriet A. Stanton, 365 

K A I HI- RINK (iAVi.oKii, Florence E. D. Muzzy, 

Aiti HiMAsroN, Frances E. Blakeslee, 

{ Alice Norton, 
Fmma 1 1 art Wii.iAKi), -Anne Amelia JIart, 403 

( Clara E. Bidivell, 
Si>AN Carrinc.ton Ci.arkk, Kate Foote Coe, 412 



CHAPTER NAMES CHOSEN To COMMEMORATE LOCALITIES. 

NokWAi.K. Angeline Scott, 

Stamkori), Mary C. Hart, 

'*' '^^^' "'■'. Helen Reding ton Adams, 



3 /.I 
395 



417 

430 

447 
* ' ^ " • »< ' • 1' A X > '^ • 1 . Alice Barrett C/tenev, 45 7 

''■'"^•O^'''"^. Mary /'..Brooks, ' 478 

(Iki FN Woods \ Emily Perkins Roberts, „ 

\ Judith Bigelow Phelps, "^^9 

^^■'•^■■^' /^' ranees Eliot Hickox, 500 

Nathan II \i.F M km.. rial, Bertha Palmer Att'wood, 509 

Im»kx. 

521 



FAITH TRUMBULL 

WIFE OF 

JONATHAN TRUMBULL 

Govt-nior of Coniwcticiit, ij0g-ij8^ 



FAITH TRUMBULL CHAPTER 
INORWICH 



"Une '>f ilie must eilicient o.'perati.rs of \Vashiiii;toii tliroiiglnait the war 
was Jonathan Trumbull. He was now sixty-live years of a.ue, active, zealous, 
ilevi.ut— a patriot . . . whose religion sanctified his patriotism. A letter addressed 
by him to Washington, just after the latter had entered upon the command, is 
worthy of the purest days of the Covenanters,—' Congress have, with one united 
voice, appointed you to the high station you possess. May the God of the 
armies of Israel shower down the blessings of His Divine Providence on you, 
give you wisdom and fortitude; . . . convince our enemies of their mistaken 
measures and that all their attempts to deprive these colonies of their inestimable 
constitutional rights and liberties are injurious and vain.' "' 

"There could be no surer reliance for aid in time of danger than the patriot- 
ism of Governor Trumbull; nor were there men more ready to obey a sudden 
appe;il to arms than the yeomanry of Connecticut. ... No portion of the Union 
was so severely tested, throughout the Revolution, for military service ; and 
Washington avowed, when the great struggle was over, that 'if all the States had 
done their duty as well as the little St;ite of Connecticut, the war would have 
been ended ionv.' ago." " 

— IViisbii/gtou living. 



FAITH TRUMBULL 




HE patriotic societies, which have sprung into existence 
hirgely within tiie last decade, are A'ving- with eacli other 
in commemorating the brave deeds of the men and 
women who lived and suffered for the founding of the 
American Republic, and to the Societv of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution is given the privilege of perpetuating the 
memory of the women of the Revolutionary period. 

There were manv patriotic women in Eastern Connecticut 
during the Revolution, but to 1-^aith Trumbull, the wife of 
Connecticut's War Governor, is accorded a position of pre- 
eminence in patriotism and influence, and, when on November 23, 
1893, about thirtv ladies of Norwich, Conn., met and organized a 
Chapter, they were proud to appropriate for their chapter the 
honored name of Faith Trumbull. 

Faith Trumbull was descended from the best New England 
ancestry. The genealogv of her family traces her direct descent 
from the celebrated John and Priscilla Alden, of the Mayflower, 
and the record now accepted as authentic is as follows : — 



John Alden, b. 1599; m. Piiscilla Mullins i62[. 

Their daughter 
Elizabeth Alden, b. 1625 ; m. William Pabodie Dec. 26, 1644. 

Their daughter 
Priscilla Pabodie, b. Jan. 15, 1653 ; m. Rev. Ichabod Wiswall. 

Their daughter 
Hannah Wiswall, Ij. Feb. 22, 16S1-2 ; m. Rev. (ohn Roliinson, Jan. 21, 1705. 

Their daughter 
Faith Robinson, b. Dec. 15, 171S ; m. Jonathan Trumbull, Dec. 9, 1735. 



Faith Trumbull when only five years old was deprived of a 
mother's love and care. Madam Robinson and her eldest daughter 



Tin-: r.\Ti«>.\ s \in rs <> 



r CONXKCTICIT CIIAl'IKk.^ 



had taken passage on a (..astin.o- vessel fn. in their home in Di.x- 
l.uiy. Mass.. for' lJosl..n. The vessel was wrecked in a sudden 
storm and b-.tii mother and dan.i^hter were drowned. The body 
..f tlie (laughter was recovered soon after and buried at Duxbury ; 
that .d" the mother was found six weeks later at Race Point, Cape 
Cofi. and itientilied by a necklace, which was preserved by her 
descendants as a treasured heirloom.* Madam Robinson was 
buried at tiie CA\n', where her resting place is marked by a monu- 
ment erected bv her husband, which bears an inscri|)tion closing 
with tliis (|uotation from the Psalms :—" Tiius He bringeth them 
t<t tiu'ir desired haven." 

Faith Trumbull was an unusually intelligent child, possessing 
great charm of character and person. Her portrait, painted when 
she had just entered young womanhowd, represents a sweet, girlish 
face, full (if beautv and great promise. She was educated under 

the immediate supervision 
of her wise ami loving 
fatiier, the Re\ . John Rob- 
inson, and bv virtue of 
hereditv and education, she 
developed into a woman 
possessing manv graces of 
character — especial Iv tliat 
of benevolence, which her 
ample circumstances per- 
mitted her to exercise at 
all times with largeness. 
She was sympathetic, mag- 
netic- and attractive. Such 
was the young woman of 
seventeen when the vouth- 
ful future Governor of 
Connecticut asked her to 
become his wife. From the 
iMiu- of her n.arriage her life became an inseparable part of that of 

• rh.-n.-.-khr,- w;,s|aM i„ ,1,.. possession of .Mrs. David Tiuml)uil, of Lebanon, 
"■laK-s tlmt an cKxiucni appeal for a certain charitable object 
Mt ilie necklace in the contribiuion box. 




aKI , I AI III IKIMIU I.I. 



DAUGHTERS OF THK A^FERrCAN REXOLUTIOX. 5 

her husband and children, and bioo^iaphers of her distinajuished 
husband and sons have ever interwoven the storv of her life with 
theirs, from which we must unravel the threads if we would record 
her individual life and personal service, and give to her the inde- 
pendent place which we wish her to occupy in the Society of the 
Daughters of the American Revob.ition. 

Jonathan Trumbull and his wife Faith, at the respective ages of 
twentv-five and seventeen, immediately established their home in 
Lebanon, Conn., which fortv vears later became the scene of 
stirring events which greatly changed the character of the ])lace 
and affected the lives of Governor Tnunbull and his family. 

Manv years of Faith Trumbull's married life were given to the 
cares of home-making and motherhood — years which strengthened 
her moral and mental endowments, and fitted her in her maturity 
for the position of adviser and aid to her illustrious husband in 
his perplexing and arduous duties as War Governor of Connecti- 
cut. Six children were born to them between the years of 1737 
and 1756, each of whom had a notable career, and all of whom 
were directly interested in the Revolution. 

As the cares and duties of motherhood relaxed their hold upon 
her, we find Madam Trumbull in middle life ready to devote her- 
self, with her husband, to the Revolutionary struggle, a cause in 
the success of which she devoutlv believed, and for whicli she 
labored with unflagging zeal and enthusiasm. 

During the long controversv between Great Britain and the 
Colonies, Governor Trumbull had been conspicuous for his stead- 
fast adherence to the cause of the American Colonies. Among all 
the governors of the thirteen cokmies he was the only one who 
took sides with the Patriots. The English Government declared 
him a rebel and put a price upon his head. Later he became 
the trusted friend and adviser of General Washington, who so 
frecjuentlv and under such \aried circumstances appealed to 
Governor Trumbull for advice, that it became his habit to say : 
" We must consult Brother Jonathan." The expression gradually 
spread abroad and became a popular phrase throughout the camp. 
In time it gained a general currency and " Brother Jonathan " 
was finally used to describe the typical American, as "John Bull" 
designates the tvpical Englishman. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 



7 



The Trumbull home and the now famous War Office face 
Lebanon Green and the old training ground. In this house 
Madam Trumbull received General Washington, General 
Knox, (Teneral vSulli- 
van. General Putnam, 
Doctor Franklin, Sam- 
uel Adams, John Jay, 
Thomas J e ff e r s o n , 
Count Rochambeau, 
Admiral Tiernay, Mar- 
quis de LaFayette, the 
Duke de Lauzun and 
the Marquis de Chas- 
tellux, all of whom 
are believed to have 
lodged beneath its 
roof, and to have been 
entertained at her 
table. Around the 
house guards were set 
to protect the Gover- 
nor's person from seiz- 
ure and his house 
from pl;;nder. Many 
a night Faith Trum- 
bull must have anx- 
iously listened to the 
measured tread of the 

patrol, upon whose faithful watch depended the life and libertv 
of her husband. 

The War Office, which the Sons of the American Revolution 
restored in 189T, was the scene of many meetings of the Council 
of Safety. At all watches of the night messengers galloped 
thither, bringing fresh news and added cares and anxieties to the 
Governor and his wife. There also the Governor received Com- 
missaries and Sub-Commissaries to talk over and devise means 
for supplying the army. Brave naval officers have crossed its 
threshold to receive their commissions and sailing orders, or to 




ENIRAM.F, TO THE TRUMBriJ, HoME. 



nil 



r PATNOX SAINTS OK a)N XI- CTICIT CHAPTERS 



report tlu- .novcnu-nts of the cncmv upon the watet, or he pnze 
^^. ,,,, ,, ,,,, ,,,,,. „>eir M-o-l lortune to capture, llie history of 
ihc War Omce is verv brietlv told on a bronze tablet uh.ch the 
Suc-ietvof the Sons o'l- the Anu-rican Revolution have placed in 



the restored buildinii;. 



"«^: 




^ 



T! '^ 





IN I I- KlDK (i| I 111- WAR Ol IIIK. 



In all the stirrini^ scenes of those eventful days, Madam Trum- 
btiil sustained lier husband In' her fortitude, wisdom and unfailing 
devotion to the Kevolutionarv struggle, laboring in every possible 
way for the cause slu- loved. She was active in arousing charities 
and in superintending contributions for the suffering soldiers, in 
stimuhiting associations anuuig her own sex to provide them with 
c)<. thing and in st-nding them eiumiraging and ai)prcciative words. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A>[ERIC.\X RENOLUTIOX. 9 

She is surely entitled to a high place amt)ng the women who have 
devoted themselves to the cause of American liberty, for which, 
as will be shown, she counted no personal sacrifice too great. 

During the Avar, after divine service on Sunday or on Thanks- 
giving day, contributions were often taken in the churches for the 
Continental Army. Upon <jne such occasion, in Lebanon Meet- 
ing-house, after notice had been given that such a collection 
would be taken. Madam Trumbull rose from her seat near her 






Yfh 



/ 



j-y^J; 






'.< 






■'■i/ir7ti 



tiuvzmm ^viij^i}j^s\ 'rmBUiL 

rWJJ im^t 'tsii>A\ iiz'mi iiunmsu iiB3;ium 
m Tiiis li'Mmii ^liiii mnB ^'jOo o^ui ,;:^^,', 








' 3ia!7^3y iii-L-i^ ^.Liifii'iUi ^u:iiSi / ii-i.i-i 'i^ ■nnrALi^t;bi il-L'j'JL'jh-jJ 




MEMOKIAL TABLET IN THE WAR OFFICE. 
(Contributed bv the Sons of the American Revolution.) 



husband and drew from her shoulders a magnificent scarlet cloak, 
which had been given her by Count Rochambeau, and, advancing 
to the pulpit, laid it on the altar as her contribution to those who 
were fighting for American Independence. It was afterwards cut 
into strips and used as red trimmings for the uniforms of the 
American soldiers. Her example aroused the enthusiasm of the 
congregation, and many responded to the appeal with large dona- 
tions. 

Her four sons were conspicuous in the Revolutionary War for 
their patriotic zeal and service ; and the husbands of her two 
daughters were equally conspicuous. The eldest son, Joseph, was 
the first Commissary-General of Washino;ton's Army, an office 



I„ Till- I'ATKOX SAINTS OF COXXFXTICUT CHAPTI-RS 

then ••( ihc highest importunce to the cause, and brinoing witli it 
;i crushing weight of responsibility and anxiety. He was emi- 
nently fitted for the position which he occupied for three years ; 
but his vigorous consiituti(»n and strong mental powers were 
.>vertaxed i)\ iiis unremitting labors, and at the early age of forty- 




MAUAM KAMII TRIMIUI.I. CONTKnifTINC: ITKR CLOAK lOK THE SOLDIERS. 

one years he was brought to the old home on Lebanon (Jrecn, 
where he died as truly a martyr to the cause of his country as if 
he liad fallen on the field. 

The second son, Jonathan rruml)ull, Jr., was ajipointed by the 
C.iuinental Congress as Paymaster-Ciencral of the Northern 
I)'|.;irtment (.f the .\rmv under (General Washington, to whom he 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A^IERrCAX REVOLUTION'. II 

afterwards became first aide and private secretary. He also held 
many positions of honor after the close of the war, being chosen 
a Member of Congress and United States Senator, Chief Judge 
of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, and for eleven years was 
annually elected as Governor of the State of Connecticut. His 
daughter, Faith, married Daniel Wadsworth, of Hartford, to whose 
liberalitv and public spirit, the Wadsworth Athenanim in the 
capital citv stands as a monument. 

Faith Trumbull, the eldest daughter of Governor Trumbull, 
Senior, married Col. Jedediah Huntington, who afterwards became 
General in the armv under Washington. She went to Boston to 
visit her husband and favorite brother, John, whose companies 
were encamped there, and arrived just in time to witness the battle 
of Bunker Hill. The anxietv for the safetv of her loved ones, and 
her phvsical and mental terror during the fight, proved too great a 
strain on her delicate constitution. Her reason fled. She was 
taken to Lebanon, bringing a grief sadder than death into the 
hearts of the Governor and his wife. She died the following 
November. 

Marv Trumbull, second daughter of the Governor, married 
William Williams, who was afterwards one of tlie signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

David Trumbull, the third son, rendered less conspicuous ser- 
vices, but was a devoted patriot, and was in service even more 
continuouslv than his brothers. He became iiis father's secretary 
and counselor, indeed the records show that he was literally his 
father's right hand. He was a member of the Council of Safety, 
acted as purchaser of supplies for the army, and was, at one time. 
Assistant Commissarv-General under his brother. 

John Trumbull, the fourth son and youngest of the family, 
served his countrv with true patriotism during part of the Revolu 
tionary War. But his most important work came in his later years, 
and he is most widelv known through his merits as an artist. His 
four great national pictures, the Declaration of Independence, the 
Surrender of Burgovne, the Surrender of Cornwallis and the 
Resignation of Washington at xA.nnapolis, each on royal canvas 
and hanging in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, belong 
to his countrv, Conaress havinu' bought them for thirtv-two 



M.I rvrKON SMNTS Or COXXF.CTICUT CHAPTERS 

ihoii.uul d..ii;iis. Tl.csc great national subjects will keep his 
uu-.norv green wl.ile our o.untrv endures. He painted many 
oilu-r pictures, fiftv-four of which he finally presented to Vale 
College. Thev were placed in the rrumbull Gallery, a building 
i-speciallv erected for their reception, and later removed to the 
Vale Art Building. Some are also preserved in the Wadsworth 
.\tlirii;eum at Hartford. 

Ill his autobiography the artist gives this tribute to his mother's 
jtalience and devotion. In early infancy he was subject to convul- 
sions, which physicians said must result in idiocy or an early death. 
At the age of nine months. Dr. Terry, an eminent physician of 
Sulheld. Conn., and an intimate friend of the family, discovered 
the hidden cause of the troid)le to be pressure upon the brain by 
a portion of the skull, which instead of becoming properly united 
tn the adjoining portion by the sutures at the edge, had slipped 
under, causing a continuous pressure on the lirain. Dr. Terry 
told .Madam Trumbull that nothing but the tender care of a mother 
( oidd effect a cure. Manv times a day with motherly solicitude 
and |)ersistent devotion she drrw the bones carefully apart and held 
tlu-in with her hands until ultimate recovery for the child was 
accomplished and tlu- life of a famovis artist was saved. 

l*"aith Trumbull walked beside her husband in hapi)y married 
life for fortv-live vears. She did not live to witness the close of 
the Revolutionary struggle. -After five vears of constant service 
and an.xiety. in which she was called upon to nunirn the untimely 
death of her two children who were sacrificed to the American 
cause, she. too. yielded up her life, at the age of sixtv-two, leaving 
the already overburdened governor, at the age of seventy, to bear 
his tri|ile weight of sorrow alone. 

(iovernor Trumbuirs biographer, I. \V. Stuart, savs of her : — 
"She was deeply eiuleared to him. as a devoted wife and mother. 
as a most agreeable companion, as the most valued of friends ; and 
he was leaning npuu her, in his old age, more than ever before as 
a staff and comfort and as the tenderest of human props." 

Her luneral sermon, a portion of which is given herewith, was 
delivered by K.v. limothy Strong :—" Madam Trumbull was 
hotiMrable in her birth, in her education and in her connections in 
life. She was possessed of a good natural understanding, of a 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMEKICAX REN'OEUTIOX. 1 3 

generous and noble spirit, which, being ornamented and informed 
by an education answerable to her family and birth, she was herebv 
fitted for that peculiar and exalted position in life to which 
Providence raised her and for which she was designed. She filled 
every station and sustained every character of life with dignity 
and propriety. The elevation of her character never raised her 
mind above her acquaintances, n<jr diverted her from the openness 
and familiarity that were peculiar to herself, nor caused her to 
neglect the duties and necessary concerns of her family, to which 
she was particularly attentive. 

She was a kind, respectful wife, an affectionate, tender parent. 
She was many years a serious professor of the religion of Jesus, a 
constant attendant upon the worship of God's house, and the 
ordinances of the Gospel. All her acquaintances will bear witness 
to her uncommon benevolence and charity. This noble and 
exalted Christian grace, which may be called an expensive grace 
and too rare in our days, — was one which, so far as known 
from outward expressions, shone with peculiar lustre in Madam 
Trumbull. She had an uncommon commiseration for the dis- 
tressed and was ever ready for, and never weary of, affording 
relief to the afflicted and the poor." 

The obituary notice, bearing date June 9, 1780, was published in 
the Connecticut Courant and is as follows : — 

"On Monday of the last week, departed this life at her seat 
in Lebanon, Madam Trumbull, consort of his Excellency, the 
Governor of this State, aged sixty-one years and five months. 
She was a daughter of that wise and venerable minister of the 
Gospel, the late Rev. John Robinson of Duxbury, Mass. Her 
pious mother was suddenly taken away while she was a 
child, leaving her the beloved of her father ; and under his 
wise and tender care she received a virtuous and polite edu- 
cation, becoming the beauty of her person, the elevation of 
her mind, and the honorable station she was destined to fill. 
She was early married to the great and good man now mourn- 
ing her loss, with whom she lived in perfect friendship for 
forty-five years, an amiable and exemplary pattern of conjugal, 
maternal and every social affection. Joined to most comely 
features, she had a certain natural, peculiar dignity in her mien 
and whole deportment through every scene in life, the same 
accompanied with a gracefid modesty, condescension and kindness. 



,, I..MV -\rv|.; ..|- (OXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

as bespoke ai .uu c ila- i^rcaiiicss of her soul and the benevolence 
nf her iieari. and equally commanded and attracted the esteem and 
respectful love of all her acquaintances. 

"liut her benevolence was more than seen ; she never turned a 
deaf ear to the crv of the poor, nor was any kind of distress in her 
p<.wer to relieve ever ne,u:Iected. Yea, she sought out and delighted 
in opportunities of doing good, and promoting, within her sphere, 
evcrv good and charitable purpose. Her circumstances enabled 
her tobegin earlv and persevere through life, in acting out the 
benevolelu desires of her heart. The sum of her charities has been 
great, and the objects very many ; but still she had an excellent 
spirit of priulence and economy and never ate the bread of idle- 
ness. Her house and all about her was a striking exhibition of 
regularitv and order. She was eminently qualified for and adorned 
the Ihuiorable station in which Providence had placed her. vShe 
had maiiv friends and not one enemy. 'The heart of her husband 
safelv trusted in her, and her children arise and call her blessed.' 
.More than all these, she had ho]5efully the saving impressions of 
Divine (Jrace, made on her heart many years since, under the 
ininisirv of that eminent servant of God, the late Rev. Dr. 
Williams, and she became a serious professor of religion and devout 
attendant on all the worship and oi'dinances of the Gospel, and 
ever maintained a fixed hope of eternal salvation, through the 
merits of Christ alone. Without ostentation slie wore the orna- 
ment of a truly Christian spirit. 

" Her health had been for many years greatly impaired, though by 
intervals she enjoyed a very comfortable state. The last return of 
her (dropsical) illness was severe, and in the short period of five 
days unexpectedly released her from a world of pain and sorrow, 
to a slate (we doubt not) of everlasting rest. 

"The honorable, bereaved consort has received and drunk his 
bitter cup at the hand of his Heavenly Father without a complain- 
ing word, remembering all the loving kindness of the Lord, and 
especially, his giving and so long continuing to him this so rich 
and great a blessing. But even Jesus wept for a friend, no wonder 
then if copious tears have bathed his face. But an unshaken trust 
in the unchanging faithfulness of God's everlasting covenant is 
his lirni aiul solid support." 

I-*aith Irumbull was buried in the family vault at Lebanon and 
the following is her epitaph :— "Sacred to the memorv of Faith 
Trumbull, the amiable lady of (iovernor Trumbull, born at FJux- 
bury. Mass, A. D. ijiX. Happy and beloved in her connubial 
state, siie lived a virtuou.s, charitable and Christian life at Lebanon, 
Ml Connecticut, and died lamented by numerous friends A.D. 1780, 
aged 62." 



DAUGHTERS OF Till-: A.MEKU AX RE\"OLUTIOX'. 



15 



The Trumbull tonil), ii})()n the east slope of the old Lebanon 
burying-ground, is distinctly seen from the road by the passer-by. 
It is the Mecca toward which many a patriot has turned his feet, 
and there done homage to the illustrious dead who lie within its 
enclosure. 

The tomb bears iipon its summit a plinth supporting a broken 
column, and was erected in 17S5 by the three surviving sons of 




THE TRUMBULL TOMB AT LEBANON. 



Madam Trumbull, Jonathan, David and John. Within lie the 
sacred ashes of more illustrious dead than in any other tomb in 
the state, — Governor Trumbull, Senior, and his wife, Faith ; their 
eldest son, Joseph ; their second son, Jonathan Jr., with his wife, 
Eunice Backus ; their second daughter, Mary, and, by her side, her 
husband, William Williams, and several hiter descendants of this 
distinguished couple. 

We must regard Faitii Trumbull as a type of the best class of 
the New England woman, educated, self-sustained, vigorous in 
mind and body, and possessed of large executive ability. Strong 



,6 iHK PATKOX SAINTS UK COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

in Ik-i- aflffctions. :iiul in tiif attacimients of domestic life, she made 
her lioine not onlv a seat of hospitality but a center of sweet, 
wliolesoMu- iiilhiences. Thoii^-i) llie cares of such a home were 
neitlK-r few nor small, and the responsibilities of such a position 
were not trilliny^, this whole-souled woman found time to take a 
brt)ad and j^enerous interest in tiie affairs of the community, of the 
state and the counlrv ; nor was her well-rounded development 
lackinij in the crowninu: ,t,^race of womanhood. She had a tender 
spiritual nature, and a strong- sweet faith in the loving care of the 
IIiMvenlv Father, to whom she committed all the affairs of her life. 
Who can estimate the influence of such a woman upon the life of 
the distinguished man wIkj called her wife, and u})on the gifted 
farnilv who called her mother? 

if "the hand that rocks the cradle is tlie hand that rules the 
World," the influence of Faith Trumbull was wide and far-reach- 
ing. Though always the gracious and gentle woman, her career 
adds lustre to the history of her times and calls fortii tlie regard 
and reverence of all loyal sons and daughters of her State. 

"Tlie bravest battle that ever was fought, 
Shall 1 tell you where and when ? 
On the map of the world you will hnd it not — 
I( was fought by the mothers of men. 

Not with cannon or l)attle slioi, 
With sword or mitrlitier ])en : 
Not with wonderful word or tliought 
From the lips of eloquent men. 

Hut deep in some patient mother's heart, 
A woman who could not vield, 
Hut silently, cheerfully bore her part: 
Aye, there is the battle lield. 

No marshalinp troop, no bivouac sons, 
•No banners to flaunt and wave ; 
Hul, oh, their battles— they last so lonjj— 
Fiom the cradle, e'en lo the grave." 

/i/Av/ Kilhoitnic Bishop. 

IMUS. H. !■. lUSllOP.) 



The Authorities used in compiling this sketch were : 
Life ot (M.vernor Jonathan Trumbull. Hy I W Stuart 
Autub.oKraphv. Reminiscences and Letters of [ohn Trumbull. 
lime s Karly Lebanon. 
MetDoirs of the Rev. Wni. Robinson 

Ihe Ken.-alouy of Faith Trun.bull. Furnished bv lonathan Trumbull, 
I-**"]., ot .Nurwnh. ' - 

'\v,lkms '"'""'''''■'' ^"•' '■'•''''' '"'"I'lbull Cliapter. Hy Mrs. W. S. C. 



RUTH WYLLYS 

REPRESENTING 

GEORGE WYLLYS 

SecfL'tarv of the Colon r jiwl Slate of CoiincLlicHf i-j2-ijg6 

AND HIS THREE SONS 

SAMUEL WV'LLYS, Coloiwl Coiitinciital Ariuv 
HEZEKIAH WYLLYS, Licittcnaiit-Colonel Coutimiifil ■^/inuv 
JOHN PALSGRAVE WYLLYS, (Major Continental ^^rniy 



RUTH WYLLYS CHAPTER 
HARTFORD 




< >'I.M\Kl CKiiRCK WYI.l.YS, WHOSE THREE SONS SERVED IN THE kEVOLlTION. 

(iT'iiii a |>)i(>ti>(;riipli of a |ii>rtrait in tlic Historical Rooms, Hartford. Hy courtesy of the 
Connecticut Historical Society.) 



RUTH WYLLYS 




IE name Ruth Wvllys was adopted by the Hartford 
Chapter, not only in compliment to the gallant ser- 
vices of General Samuel Wvllvs and his brothers, in 
the Revolutionary War, and the long term of office of 
their fatlier. Col. George Wvllys, as Secretary of the Colony and 
State of Connecticut, before, during and after the Revolutionary 
period, but also in recognition of the prominent position held by 
the family in Hartford for nearly tAvo hundred years. 

The first George Wyllys held tlie office of Governor. His son 
Samuel served in the General Assembly thirty-six years. Samuel's 
son Hezekiah Avas elected, in 17 12, Secretary of the Colony, and 
was succeeded by his son George, who held the office for a period 
of sixty-four years. George Wyllys was succeeded by his son, 
General Samuel Wyllys, who was the husband of Ruth Wyllys, 
patroness of the Hartford Chapter, and who continued in the 
office for thirteen years. Thus, this office, so important in the 
history of tlie Colony, was held for ninety-eight years without a 
break by father, son and grandson. " It is believed," remarks I. 
W. Stuart, in his '' Lives of the Early Governcjrs of Connecticut," 
"that this instance of the perpetuation of high office in the same 
family for so long a term of A'ears is without a parallel in this 
country." Add to this period of ninety-eight years, the thirty-six 
years of service of the first Samuel ^V"yllys, and the six years 
Avhen the first George Wyllys was Magistrate, Deputy Governor, 
and Governor, and we have the record of one hundred and forty 
years when high places of trust were annually given to the 
Wyllys family. 

The first of the name in tliis country Avas Governor George 
Wyllys, Avho in 1638, left an ancestral estate in England, Fenny 
Compton, in Warwickshire, to join his fortunes with the Puritan 
settlers of Hartford. His steward preceeded him with twenty 



,0 Tlir^ I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

,„c-n brin-ino- tlie timbers and other materials for the Wyllys 
home This mansion remained in the family for five generations, 
ind was always a ingathering place for prominent citizens and for 
visitors from abroad. The portraits of General Samuel Wyllys, 
and Ids wife Ruth, which, with other family pictures, hung in this 
house, were burned in the great fire in New York in 1835, Avhere 
unfortunately they had been stored after the death of the last of 
the nanu', and the sale of the mansion. 





IMK WVI.LYS MANSION AND THK CHAKTKR OAK. 
il'"ri>iii a (Ir.iwiiiK in the possession i>f Miss Ellen M. Stuart.) 

The services of George Wyllys as Secretary are ncjt as conspic- 
uous or picturesque, as those of a soldier who led battalions into 
the fray, nevertiieless tliey were very important. No official 
document was valid witiiout his signature and the seal of the 
Colony or State. As Secretary, he signed in June, 1776, the in- 
structions sent by the General Assembly of Connecticut to the 
delegates of the Colony at the General Congress in Philadelphia, 
directing them to propose that the United Colonies should be 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A^NIERICAN RE\'OLUTION-. 2 1 

declared Independent States — also tiiebill passed in October, 1776, 
declaring this Colony an Independent State. He was a member 
of the Committee appointed bv tlie Town of Hartford, Dec. 30. 
1777, to take into consideration the Articles of Confederation 
drawn up by Congress as a plan of union to be adopted bv the 
United States of America, and to lav the same before the people at 
the next town meeting. In January, 1778, he signed the Articles of 
Confederation, establishing a perpetual union between the States. 
During the Revolutionary period, he signed all the commissions 
that were issued by the General Assembly or by the Council of 
Safety. In 1779 he memorialized the Assemblv, stating that the 
great increase of business in his office had put him to much addi- 
tional expense and trouble, and asked for an increase of salary, 
which was granted. 

Ruth, the wife of General Samuel Wvllvs, and patroness of the 
Hartford Chapter, herself shared in the Wvllys blood. She was the 
daughter of another Ruth W^dh's,* by the latter's second husband. 
Col. Thomas Belden of Wethersfield. Ruth Belden, their daugh- 
ter, Avas born in 1747, and was married in 1765, when barely 
eighteen, to Captain John Stoughton, of Windsor, who liad served 
with great gallantry in the French War, 1755-63, and who for his 
services had i-eceived from the Crown a grant of land between 
Lakes George and Cham]:)lain, still known as the Stoughton Pat- 
ent. Here he settled with his \\dfe, and here he met his death 
by drowning November 27, 176S, having been overtaken by a 
storm while crossing Lake George. 

After eight years of widov.diood, being then only thirty, Mrs. 
Stoughton married on Februarv 3, 1777, her cousin. General 
Samuel Wyllys, at that time a Colonel in the Continental Army. 

Judging from familv correspondence, Mrs. Wyllys was with 
her husband during the winters when he Avas in quarters on the 
Hudson, sharing with him as far as possible the dangers and 
privations of a soldier's life. 

*Ruth, born February 22, 1705, was a daughter of Hon. Hezekiah Wylh-s, and 
a sister of Col. George Wyllys, and married (i) December 31, 1724, Richard Lord, 
of Hartford, who, later, removed to V>'etherstield. After Richard Lord's death 
in 1740, she married (2) Col. Thomas Belden. 



THK 1VMK"N- sAlXTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Suni.el Wvllv^ u;i> one of the incorporators of the First 
Companv Go'vern..r's Foot Guards, organized in 177^ -^^d became 
its first Japtain. He served from the beginning of the war, taking 
part with his regiment in the siege of Boston. In 1776 his regi- 
ment re-enlisted and served under his command m the New 
York campaign, being actively engaged in the battle of Long 




IMF. WYI.I.VS COAT-OF-ARMS. 



Islanil. After the battle of White Plains, \V\ llvs was com- 
missioned Colonel of the new Third Connecticut Ivegiment, 
and served with it for four years, during which period he was 
almost continually (»n duty on the Hudson Highlands, or along 
the Connecticut border. Farly in 1778 his regiment, with other 
tn.ops. began the permanent fortifications of West Point. In 
tlu- summer of 1779, his regiment marched with the Connecticut 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



division towards tlie Connecticut coast to clieck Tryon's invasion, 
Wyllys being then in command of his brigade. In 1780 lie was in 
camp with Wasliington's army on the Hudson. Finally, in Janu- 
ary, 1 781, the Colonel retired from service wnth many other 
officers, in consequence of regimental consolidation. From 1789 
to 1792 he was Brigadier-General of the First Brigade, State 
Militia, and from 1793 to 1796 Major-Creneral of the State Militia. 



y'y ■. - 









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FACSIMILE SIGNATURES OF SAMUEL WYLLVS AND RUTH WYLLYS. 

General WvUvs's brothers were in the service also. Hezekiah 
Wyllys fought in the battles of Long Island and White Plains. 
Later he was appointed Colonel of the First Regiment of Militia, 
which frequently turned out on alarms. He was in Putnam's force 
on the Hudson during Burgoyne's campaign, also at Stonington 
and New Haven, when those towns were attacked by the British. 

The youngest brother, John Palsgrave Wyllys, was only twenty- 
one when he entered the army as adjutant of Col. Erastus Wol- 
cott's regiment at the time of the siege of Boston. In the New 
York campaign of 1776 lie was appointed Brigade Major of Wads- 



3., nii: I'ATNOX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

W(. nil's Brii^adc. :iih1 was taken prisoner on September 5, during 
tltc retreat fn.ni New York, but was soon exciianged. In January, 
1777, lie was eonmiissioned captain in Colonel S. B. Webb's 
regiment. 

The following is a copy of a letter written by Major John 
Palsgrave Wvllvs to his sisters, among whom is included Ruth 
Wyllys. 

To my Sisters — Greeting : 

After a tedious forced march througli the Jersies, I have the 
pleasure to inform my good Sisters of my safe and sound arrival 
at Peeks-kill — not a single woimd — (except eye-shots or so) — but 
all healed after crossing the River. These Dutch women are per- 
fect antidotes for all poisonous wounds of that kind. 1 wonder if 
Susa finds anv antidotes at Killingworth. Dr. Gale's powders 
never will answer — the air among the pines would do much 
better. As for Ruth, 1 retract what I said of her — she is good 
for a great manv things ! — she feeds the body not only — but 
the mind also. I thank her for her presents of both kinds, and 
Mrs. Pomeroy* for hers — they are very good — thev will be still 
kinder by continuing them in an epistolary wav. VVitli regard to 
Susa she is gadding about so much there is no knowing where to 
find her, therefore, I say nothing to her in particular, but I must 
tax her as well as all the rest of my sisters Avith neglect in writing 
— to i)unish them for which I shall not inform them of anv of my 
adventures in the Jersies — as how I saw Miss H. Bull accidentally 
upon our march into Brunswick the morning it was evacuated bv 
the enemy — the mutual surprise — the story of her sufTerings — her 
many kind enquiries for her friends — the great relief two or three 
dishes of Tea afforded me — Ikjw our Brigade first entered the 
Town driving the enemy before them— march through the Town 
with colors Hying — pursuit towards Aniboy — return — manv affect- 
ing instances of British Cruelty— their 'treatment of women — 
some tender .scenes of which I was witness — our fatigueing march 
back, lliese, with many other curious particulars, are entirely 
lost by your negligence. 1 hope for the future you will behave 
better, ()therwise 1 can't with a good conscience give loose to my 
inclination for particular descriptions of this kind— vour amend- 
ment will give me ojiportunity. 

Mrs. l\.inroy will be so good astosendbv the first opportunity 
a c.nple of Blankets— it is very inconvenient to be without. 

•Kunice Hcidcn PoniL-roy, sisin of Ruth Wvllvs, a.ui wife of Oiiartermaster- 
<.cruTal Ralph PonK-rnv. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 25 

Rutha I suppose will soon be for writing- to her good man. I ex- 
pect a letter from her at the same time. It would be of no great 
service to write news. I will omit it, and say no more, but con- 
clude with giving my best wishes to <7//mA' Sisters and subscribing 
mvself their Friend &; Brother. 

J. P. Wvi.Lis. 
Camp at Peeks-kill. July 14, 1777. 
Sundav evening. 

John Palsgrave Wyllys served in the campaign against Bur- 
goyne, was stationed at Newport, R. I., the next year, and in 
1779-80 the regiment Avintered in the Morristown huts. In 1780 he 
was absent from his regiment most of the vear, commanding one of 
the Connecticut companies in Lafayette's Light Infantry Corps. 
He distinguished himself by his gallantry in Virginia, especially 
at the siege of Yorktown. After the surrender of Cornwallis, he 
returned to his regiment, then with the armv in the Hiehlands. 
and remained with it until it was disbanded in November, 1783. 
He entered the regular army again in 1785, served in the 
Indian campaigns in the Ohio country, and was killed at the 
head of liis command in the battle of the Miami, October 21, 1790. 

After General Samuel Wvllys returned to Hartford, he assisted 
his father in the performance of his duties as Secretary of Connecti- 
cut, and after liis fatiier's death in 1 796, was elected to the same office. 
He continued to act as Secretarv until 1809, when he retired from 
active life. He died June 9, 1823, and was buried with military 
honors in the old Center Burving Ground. ]Mrs. Ruth Wvllvs 
died September 2, 1807. 

There are no monuments to eitlier Ruth Wvllvs or her husband, 
as the Wyllys familv did not wish to have anv grave stones. One 
of them said, " If the State of Connecticut cannot remember the 
Wyllyses without tomb stones, their memorv mav rot." The shaft 
which is seen rising in the distance in tiie picture of the Ancient 
Burial Ground is the monument erected to the memorv of the first 
settlers of Hartford, and is said to be on the Wvllvs plot.* 

* Since this sketch was written a fine monument has been placed in the 
Ancient Buning Ground in memory of the Wyllys famil}- by their descendants. 
This includes Ruth Wyllys whose name appears as the wife of General Samuel 
Wvllvs. 



.'6 



1„K 1-ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAl'TERS 



\n obitt.arv noiicc from tlie old volumes of the Connecticut 
Cuuntnt supplies, with the exception of the recollections of a 
.^rrand-niece. all the definite knouled-e thus far obtained of Mrs. 
Wvllvs's line (pialities of character. ^ 

S.-veril years aero her remembrances of Kuth \\ yllys were 
narted to the wViter by the grand-niece, then a centenarian, 




TIIK .\NCU;NT HIRIAL GKOIND, HARTFORD. 
Tlic monument near llic center of tl\e illustration designates the site of the Wyllys plot.) 



who in her childhKod liad been an inmate ftjr a time of tlie Wyllys 
household. She described Mrs. Wyllys as a beautiful woman oi a 
calm, sweet temperament with dignified manners and possessing 
an indescribable charm and loveliness of spirit which drew all 
hearts towards licr. The following is tiie ol)ituarv ncjtice which 
appeared in the Coiinerticut Courant : 

" Died in this City on Wednesday last, after a long illness, Mrs. 
kulli Wvllys, the amiable and worthy consort of Gen. Samuel 
Wvllvs. :it;efl 60 vears. We do n<jt recollect to have recorded the 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAX RE\'OLUTIOX. 



n 



death of one more justly and universally esteemed for everv qual- 
ity which constitutes the worth of the female character. From 
her youth she has been distinguished for those virtues, which are 
the fruit of religious piety. By nature she was endued with a 
superior understanding which commanded respect — an amiable 
disposition which knew no resentment — benevolence which dif- 
fused happiness among her numerous acquaintance. Everv mo- 
ment of her life was spent in the discharge of some dutv. Asa 
wife she possessed the esteem and love of her husband — as a 
mother the unbounded affection of her children ; and by the ten- 
der charities of her nature she secured the friendship of all. She 
died universally lamented, and cheerfully resigned her spirit to 
Him who gave it ; cherishing the humbler hope of receiving the 
reward of a virtuous and well-spent life. 
CouRANT, Sept. 9, 1807." 

Mary Ki/assbierv Talcott. 



ir r f*'-, 




THE NEW WVLLYS MOXCMENT ERECTED BY DESCENDANTS. 



2S 



TlIK 1 



■ATKON SAIXTS OF COXXFXTICUT CHAPTERS 



Tlie Knth Wvllvs Cliai)ler has proved itself worthy of the name 
it beu-^ ill ilie heroic w<.rk of restoring and beautifying the 
V.uient'cemeterv in Hartford where Ruth Wyllys and others of 
tlu- Wvllvs familvare buried. Here also are the ashes of those 
„H-n u'l...' u.ulrrthe leadership of the Rev. Thomas Hoolver and 




TIIK STuNKS OK MR. JiUIN HAVNES LORD AND MRS. REBECCA LORD. 
iSliowinu cunditKin uf stones in tlic burial };i<)\iiui liL-l'oie its restoration by Ruth Wyllys Cliaiiter.) 

Ciovenior John Havucs, journeved with tlieir families to the hanks 
of the C'liiiiiecticut River in June, 1636, and founded a new com- 
lUdinvealth. 

I inee years ago the cemetery was a lonelv, neglected, glot)mv 
sp<it, shut in l)y high l)uildings and dirtv tenements. Now it is 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



29 



Hooded \\itli sunlight, the foundations of a Ijeaiitiful iron fence 
and gateway taking the place of the dreary tenement walls which 
were its former boundary on Gold street ; and its crumbling tombs 
have been rebuilt, straightened and re-inscribed. 

For the restoration of the cemetery and the widening of Gold 
street, it was necessary to raise nearly one hundred thousand dol- 
lars, to secure the cooperation of civic authorities, and to open a 




L.^* 



>iiiSE 1(1- JuHN CALDWKLL. 



(Showing present condition of stones in ilie burial ground since their restoration by the 
Ruth Wyllys Chapter.) 

correspondence both extensive and voluminous ; all of which 
was undertaken and carried to completion by the Ruth Wyllys 
Chapter under the leadership of its Regent and the Burying Ground 
Committee,* until in June, 1899, Gold street, having been cleared 
of its old tenements, was transformed into a broad, beautiful 



*Mrs. John M. Holcombe, Mrs. William H. Pelton and others. 



30 Tin: I'Aruox saints of coxnkcticut chapters 

hitrliuay, wliile the Ancient Cemetery rejoiced in air and sunlight 
as if in triumph over the reign of disorder and neglect to which 
it liad been subject for mure than a century. 



Harriet E. ]]' hit more. 

(mks. f. g. whitjiore.) 



/Ilicmbcrs ot tbc Gouncil of Satctv 



ROGER SHERMAN 

Signer of tkc Declaration of hidepei/deiice 

JAMES WADSWORTH 

{Major-General Confinetitai ^rniy 



ROGER SHERMAN CHAPTER 
NEW MILFORD 

WADSWORTH CHAPTER 
MIDDLETOWN 



May 1775. 

•' This Assembly do appoint ... a committee to assist his Honor the Governor 
when the Assembly is not sitting, to order and direct the marches and stations 
Ml' the inhabitants inhsted . . . for . . . the defense of the Colony, and to give 
order ... for furnishing and supplying said inhabitants so inlisted with every 
matter ^ thing that may be needful to render the defense of the Colony 
etlectual." 

Way 1776. 

"Resolved, that his Honor the Governor & Council of Safety be and they 
are hereby authorized to . . . give orders and directions for selecting out and 
regulating a proper number of orticers and men from the regiment now ordered 
t'l l'>e raised . . . t<:> appoint other olticers ... to give such orders as shall be 
proper and necessary to have such establishment made & carried into execution." 

Colonial T^ecoids of Coniwcticiit. 



ROGER SHERMAN 




HE New Milford Chapter, having- no heroine of the 
Revolution of special note, chose to commemorate, 
in its name, the remarkable service of Roger Sherman 
to his country during the Revolutionary period and 
the critical years following. The chapter is justly proud of the 
fact that for eighteen years this great and good man was a citizen 
of New Milford, and identified with the many interests of the 
town. 

Roger Sherman was born in Newton, Mass., April 19, 172 1. 
Two years later his father, William Sherman, removed to Stough- 
ton, Mass., (then a part of Dorchester). Here Roger Sherman 
lived till he was twenty-two years old. He learned from his 
father the trade of a shoemaker, and worked beside him in the 
shop and on the farm. It is not known that Roger Sherman had 
any opportunities for education other than the common district 
schools of that time afforded. But he was doubtless mucli influ- 
enced by his pastor, Rev. Samuel Dunbar, a man of much culture 
and public spirit. 

During his yoixth Roger acquired the habit of study which made 
him afterwards so proficient in logic, geography, history and 
mathematics, in philosophy and theology, and especially in law 
and politics, which were his favorite studies. We are told that he 
sat at his work with an open book before him, devoting to study 
every moment which his eyes could spare from his regular occu- 
pation. Conscious of the defects in his own education, he 
generously aided in after years his two brothers in their college 
course and in preparing for the ministry. 

In 1743, two years after his father's death, the family removed 
to New Milford, Conn., where his brother William had resided 
for three years. Roger performed the journey on foot, carrying 
3 



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'HE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



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vh 




'4iHi 


K^^ 






'Tj 


1 


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c^VR^^ 




1 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN RE\'OLUTION. 35 

his slioemaker's tools upon liis back. It is an inspiring picture, 
—this youth of splendid qualities, starting out in life unaided, 
untrammeled, the world all before him, with only his own brawn 
and brain to master it. 

His object in going to New Milford was to engage in survey- 
ing, and in 1745 he was appointed surveyor of lands in New 
Haven County, in which New Milford was then included. This 
was his first official position, and he retained it for eigliteen years. 
He was also engaged in the business of a general country store with 
his brother William. He held many town offices in New Milford, 
and was a deacon in the church for manv years, until his removal 
to New Haven. 

In 1749 he married, at Stoughton, Mass., Elizabeth Hartwell, 
daughter of Deacon Joseph Hartwell. Seven ciiildren were born 
to them in New Milford. Madame Sherman died there October 
19, 1760. Two children also died in New Milford. It is the 
pleasure of the Roger Sherman Chapter to care for their graves 
and to strew them with flowers on each Memorial Day. He 
married for his second wife, in 1763, Rebecca Prescott of Dan- 
vers, Mass. Eight children were born to them, of whom all but 
one lived to maturity. 

In 1750 Roger Sherman began the publication of a series of 
almanacs. He also studied law, and in 1754 was admitted to prac- 
tice at the bar. He was a representative of New Milford in the 
(xeneral Assembly for several years, until his removal from the 
town. 

He removed to New Haven in 1761 and engaged in mercantile 
pursuits, in which he was very successful. He was the first Mayor 
of New Haven, and retained the office until his death. He was 
treasurer of Yale College front 1765 to 1776, and in 1768 received 
from the college the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 
1766 he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court in Connecti- 
cut, and the same year became a member of the State Senate. In 
the former office he continued twenty-three years, and in the 
latter nineteen years. He retired from business in 1772, and 
from this time he was fully employed in civil affairs and public life. 

In August, 1774, he was elected delegate to the Continental 
Congress and was one of its most active members. He served 



,6 -ini.: r.MKuN SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

in Congress from 1774 to i78i,and was again elected in 1783. 
Tlioiigli not an orator, lie was iinequaled by any of his contem- 
poraries in common sense and good judgnient. Theodore Sedg- 
wick said of him : " He was a man of the selectest wisdom I have 
ever known." JelTerson spoke of him as "a man who never said 
a foolish thing." Natliaiiiel Macon declared of Roger Sherman 
tliat '' he had more tomnion sense tlian any man I have ever 
known." 

Roger Sherman served on more important committees than 
anv man of his time. He was a member of the "Council of 
Safety" for tiiree successive years, 1777, 1778, 1779, and again in 
1782. This Council was a creation of the peculiar necessities of 
the times, its members having been appointed in May, 1775, by the 
Assembly of Connecticut to aid the Governor in directing the 
marches and stations of troops, and in supplying them with 
"everv matter and thing needful." As the years went on, its 
membership increased from nine or ten to about twenty-four, 
inchiding the Governor and Lieutenant-CTOvernor, and to it were 
delegated new jjowers each year until finally it held almost 
luilimited control of militarv and naval affairs in the State. 
From the records of the proceedings of the Council* it appears 
that Mr. Siierman was a faithful attendant of its meetings, and we 
mav believe that his good judgment and understanding of men 
aiul affairs made him a most valuable member.f 

In 1783 he was associated with Judge Law in revising the 
statutes of Connecticut. His most distinguished service in 
national affairs was rendered perhaps when he served, with 
Adams, Franklin, Jefferson and Livingstone, on a committee 

^2 J^ appointed to prepare a draft 

<yt>^£/^X^7zQy7y7^Z(:X^?l^ of the Declaration of Inde- 
(y pendence, of which he was 

also one of the immortal signers. 

He was a delegate to the convention of 1787, which framed a 
constitution for ihe United States, many of the propositions 
wliich R..ger Sherman offered being incorporated in that instru- 

* Records of the State of Connecticut. Hoadly. 

+ Ne\v Knuland Magazine, May, 1899. J. Moss Ives. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:MERICAN REVOLUTION. 37 

ment. Indeed he has been called "the backbone of the conven- 
tion," and Hon. Geo. F. Hoar is authority for the statement that 
" but for Roger Sherman we should not have had a constitution 
nor a country." Once during the convention he stood entirely 
alone in opposing a certain measure. Later the convetition came 
over to the side of this one man who voted in the negative, and 
the measures advocated by Roger Sherman were adopted. 

He was a representative in the U. S. Congress 1789-91, and a 
United States Senator from 1791 to 1793. He was the only man 
who signed all four of the great state papers, the Address to the 
King, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, 
Articles of the Constitution. Bancroft, in his history, places 
Roger Sherman at the head of the list of '' Master-builders of the 
Constitution." He also says concerning the convention : " No one 
in the convention had so large an experience in legislating for the 
United States. There was in him kindheartedness and industry, 
penetration and close reasoning, an unclouded intellect, superi- 
ority to passion, intrei^id patriotism, solid judgment, and a direct- 
ness which went straight to its end." 

His strong religious faith was restrained by the same sound 
common sense. Dr. .Samuel Hopkins having maintained that a 
man must even be willing to be damned in order to be saved, 
Roger Sherman remonstrated with him in two letters, and finally 
summed up the whole matter in this sentence : " In my opinion, 
no reasonable man should be Avilling to be damned under any 
circumstances." 

He is generallv regarded as a very serious and even austere 
man, but is said to have been delightful in conversation, and was 
noted for his terse and pungent wit. After Burgoyne's surrender, 
a messenger was despatched to carrv the news to Congress, but 
was so tardy that the news was received long before the arrival of 
the messenger. Some one proposed that the messenger should be 
presented with a sword. Mr. Sherman suggested a pair of spurs 
as a more appropriate gift ! When Rhode Island complained of 
the encroachments of her neighbors, Mr. Sherman observed that 
"Rhode Island might annex Connecticut if she wished." 

He disliked ornament in speech, and always avoided being a 
speaker on ostentatious occasions. On one occasion, however, he 



38 Tin- PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

was persuaded to be present at the dedication of a bridge at Fair 
Haven, lie n.de tliitlier on horseback where a great throng 
awaited him. I le mounted the corner-stone, tipped his feet on his 
toes, tiien on his heels and remarlcing, "1 don't see but it stands 
steady." mounted his horse and rode home. 

His pastor, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, tluis describes his personal 
appearance: "His person was tall, unusually erect and well 
proportioned, and his countenance agreeable and manly." His 
portrait shews him to have had a fair complexion, blue eyes, and 
brown hair. He died in New Haven, July 23, 1793, full of years 
and lienors. He will ever be remembered as a most remarkable 
example of a great man effacing self in entire devotion to his 
countrv and his time. 

KKI'.F.CCA PRKSCOrr, WIKK OF KOC.ER .SHERMAN. 

Rebecca Prescott, second wife ot Roger Sherman, was married 
to iiim in Danvers, Mass., May 12, 1763. She was a daughter of 
Benjamin Prescott, and a grand-daughter of Rev. Benjamin Pres- 
cott for manv years pastor in Salem, Mass. Her grandson, Hon. 
George F. Hoar, tells the following story of her first meeting with 
her future husband : 

" Mr. Sherman paid a visit to his brother Josiali in W^jburn, 
Mass., journeving from New Haven on horseback. When about 
to return, his brother accompanied him some little distance. As 
they were saying good-bve, there rode up a beautiful girl of 
eighteen. It was Rebecca Prescott riding over to visit her aunt, 
Mrs. Josiah Sherman. Mr. Sherman was presented to her. It was 
an instantaneous and fatal shot. He concluded it was not so 
necessary after all for him to return, and accepted the invitation 
to remain longer." 

Reliecca Prescott was a woman of great personal beauty, cheer- 
ful wit, and shrewd common sense. She was descended from 
John Prescott, founder of Lancaster, and first settler of Worcester 
Countv, -Mass, -also the ancestor of Col. William Prescott of 
Bunker Hill, of Judge William Prescott, and of William H. 
Prescott, the historian. Senator Hoar is in possession of a 
genealogical table showing her descent, through F"rancis Higgin- 
soi), from a sister of (ieoffrev Chaucer. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 39 

One of her descendants writes that " she took an interest in every- 
body and everything, and was very clear and quick in calcula- 
tion. Her influence and good counsel were felt wherever she was 
known." Mrs. Sherman was at one time visiting her husband at 
the seat of government, and was invited by General Washington 
to a dinner party, conducted by him into dinner, and given the 
seat of honor on his right. Madam Hancock complained to 
Washington's Secretary afterw^ard of the slight to herself, to 
whom the distinction she felt was due. Washington, hearing 
of it, replied that it was his privilege to give his arm to the 
handsomest woman in the room ! 

Mr. Sherman's public duties required his absence from home 
much of the time, and the care of the family was borne by his 
young wife. Not only her own eight children, but the children 
of the former marriage were included in this care. 

We learn also from letters that Roger Sherman was accustomed 
to advise with his wife concerning public aifairs, and placed great 
reliance upon her judgment. He used to sav that he never liked 
to decide a perplexing question without submitting it for the 
opinion of some intelligent woman. Therefore, though Madam 
Sherman had no active part in the Revolution, it is evident from 
her husband's testimony that she was in fact, like many other 
Connecticut women, one of its real promotors. 

The Children of Roger Sherman. 

The three sons of Roger Sherman by his first wife, John, 
William and Isaac, were officers in the Revolutionary Army. 

Isaac was especially distinguished for bravery. Washington 
wrote to Gov. Trumbull Oct. 9th, 1776, recommending " Major 
Isaac Sherman, son of Mr. Sherman of Congress, for promotion, 
'a young gentleman who appears to me, and who is generally 
esteemed, an active and valuable officer.' " After the capture of 
Stony Point, July, 1779, Gen. Wayne mentions him in a report 
to Washington as Lieut. Colonel Sherman, " Whose good conduct 
and intrepidity entitled him to special mention." 

Chloe, the only daughter of the first marriage who lived to 
maturity, became the wife of Dr. John Skinner of New Haven, 



40 THE PATKOX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

irrandlallici- of Mrs. President Dwight, and of Hon. Roger 
Slicnnan Skinner, an eminent mayor of New Haven. 

Roger Sherman, Jr., the oldest son of the second marriage, 
graduated at Yale College in 1787, lived to a great age, spent 
iiis life in the house his father built, and died there. He was a 
nu-rchant in New Haven, and noted for integrity and benevolence. 
Soon after the war lie visited Washington at Mt. Vernon, and 
remained a fortnight. 

Oliver, the second son by same marriage, was graduated at Yale 
in 1795. became a merchant in Boston and died of y el tow fever in 
West Indies in 1820. 

Five daughters of Roger Sherman and Rebecca Prescott lived 
to maturity. Each became the wife of a man resembling Roger 
Sherman in integrity, public spirit, religious faith, sound judgment 
and hirge mental capacity. 

Martha married Jeremiaii Day, D.D., for thirty years president 
of Yale College. Rebecca married Judge Simeon Baldwin of 
New Haven, member of Congress, and Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Connecticut. After her death Judge Baldwin married 
her sister Kli/abelh, Mehiiablc Siiernian became the wife of 
Jeremiah Evarts, and was the mother of Wm. M. Evarts of New 
York. 

The youngest daughter vSarah married Samuel Hoar of Con- 
cord, Mass., an eminent advocate, iiigldy esteemed for integrity 
and ability. She was the mother of Hon. Geo. F. Hoar, U. S. 
Senator from Massachusetts, who has so long served his country 
in Congress witli honor and notable abilitv and integritv. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 4 1 



The following is the inscription upon the tablet which covers 
Roger Slierman's tomb at New Haven, Conn. 



"In memoi'}' of 

The Hon. Roger Sherman, Esq., 

Ma3'or of the City of New Haven, 

and Senator of the United States. 

He was born at Newtown, in Massachusetts, 

April igtli, 1721, 

and died in New Haven, July 23rd, A.D. 1793, 

Aged LXXH. 

Possessed of a strong, clear, penetrating mind, 

and singular perseverance, 

He became the self-taught scholar, 

Eminent for jurisprudence and policy. 

He was nineteen 3'ears an assistant, 

and twenty-three years a Judge of the Superior Court, 

in high reputation. 

He was a delegate in the iirst Congress, 

Signed the glorious act of Independence, 

and many years displayed superior talents and ability 

in the national legislature. 

He was a member of the general convention, 

approved the federal constitution. 

and served his countr}' with fidelity and honor, 

in the House of Representatives, 

and in the Senate of the United States. 

He was a man of approved integrity ; 

a cool, discerning Judge ; 

a prudent, sagacious politician ; 

a true, faithful, and firm patriot. 

He ever adorned 

the profession of Christianity 

which he made in youth ; 

and, distinguished through life 

for public usefulness, 

died in the prospect 

of a blessed immortality." 



42 



Tin- PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



It was the privilecre of the Roger Sherman Chapter in October, 
1S97. to phue a tablet to the memory of Roger Sherman upon the 
Town Hall ..f New Miltonl, which occupies the site of his old 
home. This tablet was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies 

Oct. 26tii, 1S97. 

Two U. S. Senators honored the occasion with their presence, 
Oen. b.seph R. Hawley of Connecticut and Hon. Geo. F. Hoar 




TOWN HAI.I., NKW MlLl-OKD, ON TMK SITE OK KOCKR SHKKM.VN's HOME. 

of Massaciuisetts. Both gave addresses. Especially notable was 
the address of Senator Hoar, who is a grandson of New Milford's 
<ha|)ter patron, and who has made a more thorough study of 
Roger Sherman's life than any other person living. 



.\11 mI I he facts in these sketches are taken from Routell's 
" Life of Roger Sherman," the material for which was mostly 
luniislifdby Hon. Geo. F. Hoar, the result of many years' research. 

Charlotte B. Bennett. 
Alice C. Bostwick. 

(MRS. HENRY E. BOSTWICK.) 



JAMES WADSWORTH 




HAT'S in a name?" \"erily much every way, as the 
fascinating records of the ancient and honorable 
town of Durham abundantly prove. What Daughter 
of the x\merican Revolution can turn their vellow 
pages and trace the quaint biography — the birth, the baptism, the 
marriage, the public offices and honors, the private joys and sor- 
rows, the death — without living in imagination in those davs of 
dignitv and simplicitv and being thrilled with the emotions which 
pulsed in human hearts a century ago ; for these plain, unvar- 
nished records of the past become strangely vocal, not alone with 
the exultant pa?ans of patriotism, but also with the " still, sad 
music of humanity." 

Durham is not among the oldest daughters of Connecticut. 
While, among the colonists at Hartford, their far-seeing and 
liberty-loving leader, the Rev. Thomas Hooker, "of majestic 
presence and noble mien," was working out that constitution of 
" unexampled liberality " which has proved a lasting foundation 
for the liberties of the commonwealtli ; while Wethersfield and 
Windsor, Savbrook and New London were involved in Indian 
treaty or Indian massacre ; when Fairfield and Stamford were 
fighting the Dutch, even while Xew Haven was breaking the 
heart of gifted John Davenport by surrendering her individu- 
ality to Connecticut ; while Mettabessett was changing her name 
to Middletown and spelling it with one d, Durham was but the 
swamp of Coginchaug — a happy hunting ground for the brave 
Mettabessetts. 

Battles carnal and spiritual had been fought out to a peaceful 
issue, dissent and controversy had been somewhat quieted in the 
primitive Colonies when Durham began her chronicles. Their 
colonists had been Englishmen ; Durham's founders, two genera- 
tions later, were Americans. 



* Reprinted from the American Monthlj^ Magazine. 



44 



THi: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



TIr- tiansformation from Coginchaug to Durham is interesting. 
As early as 1663 land grants were made from its territory, and, for 
a peri..d following, it was the pleasant custom if a public man 
merited the gratitude of the colony, by wisdom in council, by 
braverv in l)attle, or by preaching a "good election sermon," to 
rewarti him witii the' grant of a farm in Coginchaug. It was 
doubtless in this way that Abraham Pierson, first president of 
Vale College ; Rev. Joseph Eliot, son of the apostle to the 
Indians, and other clerical gentlemen, became owners of real 
estate in Coginchaug swamp. These grantees purchased their 
rights of the Indians in spite of Governor Andrews's sneer that 
the "signature of an Indian was no better than the scratch of a 
bear's paw." One could hardly dispute his remark, from an 
a-sthetic point of view, after a perusal of the marvelous deed 
given bv Chief Tarramuggus and his tribe to the purchasers of 
Coginchaug. 

In 1699 the petition to the General Court for a township was 
grained, and in 1704 the name was changed, the proprietors hav- 
ing requested that "the plantation shall be called by the name of 
Durham, and have this figure for a brand for their horseicind, D." 
According to tradition, the new name was chosen from the city 
and country seat in England which had been the residence of the 
Wadsworth family. Among the thirty-four original proprietors 
to whom, " in the seventh year of our sovereign, Lady Ann of 
(ireat Britain," the patent of Durham was issued, we find with 
quickening interest the name of James Wadsworth, who, with 
Ruth, his wife, and his only son, James, came from Farmington to 
the new settlement. He was the son of John Wadsworth, who 
came from England with his father, William, in 167,2. Other 
descendants of this family are Captain Joseph Wadsworth, who 
is supposed to be responsible for the mvsterious disappearance 
(»f the famous charter, having hidden it in the venerable oak and 
retained it in his possession for many years ; and General Daniel 
Wadsworth, who founded the Hartford Atheneum. Among the 
colleagues of James Wadsworth, who was the grandfather of our 
hero, are familiar names— Caleb Seaward and Samuel Camp, 
Rc.binson, Coe, Parmelee, Beach, Rtjberts, Baldwin, Fairchild, 
and Chauncey. These were joined by the Tibbals and Merwins, 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERECAN REVOLUTION. 45 

the Newtoiis and Guernseys, and many others, until the town 
soon reached its later average of one tliousand people. 

An enthusiastic historian thus eulogizes the favored town — no 
longer Coginchaug swamp : "Beautiful for situation is the town 
plat of Durham, skirted by a prairie on one side and a cultivated 
valley on the other ; girded by mountains, neither too near nor 
too remote. Beautiful is the village of Durham and its long, 
broad streets, studded with neat habitations, the abode of peace 
and virtue, of contentment and religion. When the town was on 
the great mail route from Boston to New York and six stages 
daily passed through it, passengers, as they stopped for breakfast 
or dinner at the Swathel House, would often declare that they 
had seen nothing on their way which for beauty of landscape sur- 
passed it. Here George Washington and other distinguished men 
stopped for rest and refreshment." 

But our interest in these early days now concentrates upon 
General Wadsworth's noble grandfather, who, without prominent 
military achievement, was as remarkable as his grandson. 
James Wadsworth the first was born in 1675 and lived until the 
general was twenty-six years of age and able to succeed him as 
proprietor's clerk and town clerk, offices which the former had 
held for fifty years. A lawyer by profession, he was honored by 
almost every office at the disposal of the people of Durham, and 
his name appears in nearlv everv public document of his times. 
At the very outset he successfully I'epresented Durliam before the 
General Assembly in the settlement of her boundary lines with 
Middletown and her other neighbors. " When his abilities and 
moral worth came to be generally know^n he was honored by 
appointments by the Colony. He was the first justice of the peace 
and he had command of the first militarv company at its formation. 
Upon the organization of the militia in 1735 ^e was constituted 
colonel of the Tenth Regiment. He was Speaker of the House in 
the Colonial Legislature, 1717, and assistant from 171S to 1752. 
The election to that office was by a general ticket, and such was 
the confidence of the Colony in his ability and integrity, at a 
period when abilitv and integrity were the indispensable qualifi- 
cations for office, that on the returns for the year 1732 he had the 
highest vote in the Colony. In May, 1724, he was appointed, 



nil. I'MKOX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

withsevenil other gentlemen, to hear and determine all matters of 
ern.r and ccpiitv brought on petition to the General Assembly, 
and from 1 724 lie was one of the judges of the superior court. At 
the October session of the Assembly, 1726, a grant of three 
hunilred acres of land in Goshen was made to Colonel Wads- 
worth, Ile/ekiali Brainerd (father of the missionary David Brain 
erd. of Iladdam), and Jolin Hall, of Wallingford, in return for 
public- services.' 

Ill the performance of public duties, his ability and integrity 
were alike conspicuous, while an exemplary attendance upon the 
worship and ordinances of the Lord gave a dignity to his charac- 
ter. He exerted a salutary influence upon the town — more so, 
indeed, than any one except his "personal friend, the minister." 
As soon as Durham was settled, negotiations were commenced 
by which tiie town should call a spiritual guide, and at the ordi- 
nation (jf the Rev. Nathaniel Chauncey, Colonel Wadsworth and 
Caleb Seaward were chosen to call the council and arrange the 
entertainment thereof. The colonel himself contributed the beef, 
to the value of sixteen siiillings, and secured from others "two 
piggs," a generous ([uantitv of rum, beer, and cider, and a very 
substantial cijllation. The new minister became the strong 
personal friend of Colonel Wadsworth, and they spent fifty 
years together in the care of the temporal and spiritual welfare 
of the town. In tiieir deaths they were not divided, the one 
dying in januarv and the other in February, 1756. 

The Rev. Mr. Chauncey was a remarkable man, even for those 
heroic days. He was tlie first to receive a degree from Yale Col- 
lege, and his inlluence was always powerfully exerted in favor 
of learning as well as piety. David Brainerd, the celebrated 
missiuniiry, dates his "frequent longing" for a liberal education 
to his one year's residence in Durham, and he commenced his 
classical studies, as did many another lad of the parish, under 
Mr. Chauncey's inlluence. Mr. Chauncey owned one of the 
largest private libraries in the State, and was always a deep stu- 
dent. One of his admiring hearers writes: "He was not a large 
man, but a man of great presence. He looked like a man. When 
he was seen apppjaching the meeting-house on the Sabbath, we 
were all careful to be in our seats, and wiien he entered the house 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 47 

we all rose to receive him and continued standinguntil he took his 
place in the pulpit. His sermons were carefuUv studied and 
deeply interested his congregation. On one occasion, in his 
preaching, Deacon Crane arose after service and said : " Reverend 
Sir, will you please to explain further on that point of doctrine 
in your sermon ? " "Deacon Crane, if you will go with me to 
my study, I will explain it to you." Accordingly the minister and 
the deacon hastened to the parsonage, when lo, the whole con- 
gregation followed ! " 

It was in Mv. Chauncey's arms that the little grandson of his 
friend. Colonel Wadsworth, was placed, when on a July Sabbath, 
in 1730, he was brought to the meeting-house to be baptized and 
to receive the alreadv honored name, James Wadsworth. We 
wonder if, as the years went on and the venerable pastor's tones 
of solemn earnestness began to show the feebleness of age, the 
little lad, James Wadsworth, Third, sitting with the other boys on 
the pulpit stairs, did not sometimes, during the long, cold hour 
of the winter Sabbath, cherish wandering thoughts about the 
noonings and the delights of the blazing fire and the substantial 
lunch awaiting him in the Sabbath-Day House near at hand. 
As he later reached the dignity of young manhood and a seat 
in the gallery, his thoughts were doubtless sometimes diverted 
from Mr. Chauncey's doctrinal discourse as he caught a glimpse 
of fair Katherine Guernsey among her sisters in the singing seats. 

The father of our hero came, as we have seen, when a lad, wnth 
his father, the colonel, to settle in Durham, and there his life of 
eighty-seven years was spent. He seems to have been less promi- 
nent in colonial life than his father or his son, but eminently 
useful in the affairs of the town. For instance, he was one of 
the committee to "review" the woodpile of the Rev. Nathaniel 
Chauncey, and he later assisted in the ordination of Mr. Chaun- 
cey's successor. 

But we may now leave the noble ancestrv of our hero and trace 
in the ancient chronicles of Durham the events of his own long 
life. Turning first the pages of the church register, we find in 
Mr. Chauncey's own handwriting the baptismal record, "July 12, 
1730, James Wadsworth, son of James and Abigail Wadsworth." 
Fortunate, indeed, it was for the future glory of the Wadsworth 



_jS Tin- I'ATKOX SAINTS OF CONXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

niiine tliat tlie inf;int of six days survived the outing, and that it 
was luly and not January in which lie was carried to the meeting- 
lious'c. Two vears hiter his brother, John Noyes Wadsworth, was 
baptized at liome, and when James was thirteen his little sister 
Ruth was alst) christened and became the namesake of her grand- 
mother, the colonel's wife, who lived until her grandson James 
was fortv-four years old. 

Kducation went ahvavs hand in hand with religion, and the 
sciiool-lunise had long stood upon the village green when little 
lames Wadsworth, Third, began his preparation for Yale by study- 
ing the " primer and the Psalter and the spelling book." In this 
modest iiall of learning, twenty-six feet long and eighteen feet 
broad, we can imagine the future general with his playmates — on 
the girls' side, Tamar Coe, Mercy Johnson, Mindwell Beach, 
Experience Strong, Submit Seaward, Zipporah Fairchild, Con- 
currence Smith, and many another quaint little maiden, while 
among the boys were Sharon Rose, Gideon F.eete, Israel Squire, 
Abiathar Camp, and Zimri Hills. 

A verv important influence must have been exerted upon these 
voung seekers for truth bv the establishment of the Book Com- 
paiiv, 1733, which founded the first library in the Colony of 
Connecticut, of which an enthusiastic historian writes: ''For 
nearly a century the books were circulated extensively through 
the town, and, being read in the families, nourished for two or 
three generations strong men, who understood important subjects 
in the varicjus elevated branches of human knowledge. It was 
this library which helped to make the voice of Durham potent in 
the Legislature for sixty or eighty years. It was this library 
whiih helped to refine the manners of the people and gave a high 
ciiaracter to the schools and which created a taste for a liberal 
education which for a long time characterized the town. There 
was no light literature in this collection. The great principles 
of the civil and ecclesiastical government, the great doctrines of 
the Gijspel, the great duties of morality, the cardinal virtues — the 
chief end of man — became in their elements so familiar to the 
leading minds (jf the town that superficial views of truth or of 
duty would not satisfy them." 

In his later life, when the cruel war was over, General Wads- 
worth was for many years librarian of the Book Company, and 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



49 



the volumes were kept at his own house. One of the hids who 
used to frequent the library says of James Wadsworth : "He 
was very dignified, but very courteous in his manners, as I well 
remember. He sometimes had a word of encouragement in 
regard to reading certain books." 

But we must return to the days of his voutli. From the 
school on Meeting-house (jreen he was soon promoted to the 




^ 



-JSkis 



MOUSE OF GENERAL JAMES WADSWORTH OX THE LEFT. 
HOME OF THE LATE WM. WADSWORTH (TOWN CLERK AND JUSTICE) IN THE 

FOREGROUND. 

pastor's study to begin his classical education with his grand- 
father's friend, Mr. Chauncey. In 1748, at the age of eighteen, 
he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Yale College. In 
tiiis vear occurred the death of his mother. After having studied 
law, James Wadsworth settled in Durham and was soon advanced 
to office in both civil and military life. On the death of his 
grandfather, the colonel, in 1756, he was elected town clerk, and 
continued in that position fcjr thirty years. In this period he was 
described as " a man of dignified manners, of sound understand- 
4 



-O TlIK I'ATKON .sAlXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

ing, and of the strictest morals." He was a member of the Gen- 
eral Assembly for many years, and in a letter written from 
Middletown in Xovcmber, 1775, to Silas Deane, then at Philadel- 
phia, lie is mentioned as one of the "principal palavermen in the 
Ibaise." Before passing to his military career, we may read 
between the lines of the town records the story of his private life. 
One of the lirst services performed by Rev. Mr. (xoodrich, the 
successor of Mr. Chauncey, was the marriage ceremony of Cap- 
tain lames Wadsworth, as he was then called, and Katharine, 
daughter of Ebenezer (luernsey, on January 13, 1757. His fair 
young bride must have been his playmate in earliest childhood, ■ 
and remained his companion in joy and sorrow until four years 
before his deatli. 

What chapters of pathos these simple records of the church 
reveal! "Admitted to full communion October 30, 1757, Kath- 
erine, wife of Captain James Wadsworth." " Jiaptized December 
-5. i757> Abigail, daughter of Captain James and Katherine 
Wadsworth." 

Facing that mysterious door of motlierhood which swings both 
ways, her mind full of sweet and solemn thoughts, Katherine 
Wadsworth consecrated hopes and fears alike upon the simple 
altar of the little village church. We turn the yellow leaf and 
find the record; "Died February 2, 1759, Abigail, daughter of 
Captain James and Katherine Wadsworth," for the little namesake 
of the general's mother lived hardly more than a year. Another 
daughter, Katherine, came to comfort the saddened home, but in 
1763. in her tliird year, her name is entered in General Wadsworth's 
own writing among the deaths. 

Wegreatly regret that the military achievements of our hero are 
so inadequately recorded. It would have been an inspiration to 
the Daugiiters of the .Vmerican Revolution to dwell upon the 
detads of the life of the general as fully as we have upon those of 
the man ; but at present we can only enumerate his offices and let 
tin- imagination complete the picture of his military greatness. 

In 1775, being colonel of the militia, he was appointed with 
(.thers a committee to provide for the officers and soldiers who 
were prisf»ners of war. 

In conse(|uence of a pressing request from General Washington 
in Januarv, 1776, the Council of Safety voted that four regiments 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMliRlCAN REVOLUTION. 51 

be raised, each to consist of seven hundred and twenty-eig'ht men, 
including officers, to serve at the camp near Boston until the ist 
of April. The first regiment thus raised was placed under the 
command of Colonel James Wadsworth, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Comfort Sage, and Major Dyer Throop. The General Assemblv 
of Connecticut, at the December session, 1776, formed the militia 
of the State into six brigades under two major generals and six 
brigadier generals. James Wadsworth was at once chosen one of 
the six brigadier generals, and later he was appointed second 
major general. 

In May,- 1777, James Wadsworth was appointed a member of the 
Council of Safety ; for three successive years he served his state 
in this very responsible bodv which had become a kind of State 
Board of War and included in its membership several of Con- 
necticut's ablest generals, Spencer, Wolcott, Huntington, Daven- 
port, Wadsworth. 

In 1777 he was one of an important committee appointed 
to revise the militia laws of the State for the more effectual defense 
of the countrv. In March, 1777, General Wadsworth was ordered to 
march one-fourth of his brigade to New Haven to defend the coast. 
In April, 1778, the Council of Safety directed him to incpiire into 
the state of the guards at New Haven and to dismiss the militia 
there, in whole or in part, at his discretion. For several years 
he was justice of the quorum, and then judge of the court of com- 
mon pleas in New Haven County. In 1776-77 he was controller 
of public accounts in the State, and from 1785 to 1789 he was 
member of the Council. 

Colonel Elihu Chauncev, the eldest son of the minister, though 
twenty years James Wadsworth's senior, was a congenial associate, 
and between them there existed a strong and generous friendship. 
They were both men of the highest moral principle, which no 
office could bribe them to surrender. Both were, to some 
extent, martyrs to their convictions. When the Revolutionary 
War was impending Colonel Chauncey refused to violate his 
oath of allegiance to Great Britain. He therefore gave up public 
office, but he continued to enjov the confidence of his fellow- 
men because they considered him true to his principles of honor 
and moral obligations. 



^2 TlIK PATRON SAIXTS Ol'' CON N 1- CTICUT CHAPTERS 

(.ciKTiil Wadsworih, (luiiiio- one session, was a member of the 
ContiiK-ntal Congress, but when in 1788 the new Federal Constitu- 
tion was brought before the State convention at Hartford for 
adoption or rejection General Wadsworth made the great speecli 
against it. The special town meeting which had appointed Gen- 
eral Wadsworth a delegate to this convention had rejected the 
Federal Constitution, four voting in favor and sixty-seven against 
it. In taking the vote, those on either side of the question were 
arranged in lines running south on the green from the south door 
of tiie meeting-house. In one line were four, in the other sixty- 
seven. The vote was given in the negative from the .apprehen- 
sion of the people of the town that the Federal Government to 
be created bv the Constitution would take advantage of the pow- 
ers delegated to it, and assume other powers not delegated by the 
Constitution. This fear remained with General Wadsworth that, 
although the convention which formulated it supposed that they 
had guarded the rights of the States, advantage would be taken 
of the Federal Constitution by the national government, in times 
of popular excitement, to encroach on the rights of the States. 
However, the vote at the Hartford State convention stood one 
hundred and twenty-eight in favor of, to forty against, the new^ 
Constitution. On high moral grounds General Wadsworth 
alwavs refused to lake an oath to sujiport the Federal Constitu- 
lidu. His oath of fidelity to Connecticut, in his judgment, would 
be violated by taking that oath. He was offered office — even, it is 
said, tiiat of Ciovernor of the State, but he declined to accept the 
lionor. 

In the year 1794, notwithstanding his refusal to take the oath to 
support the Federal Constitution, the General Assembly of Con- 
necticut appointed him to "settle accounts between the State of 
.New York and the State of Connecticut, and to receive the balance 
which may be due this State on such a settlement." 

A letter is in existence, in copy at least, written bv Jonathan 
Trumbull in 1777 to Major General Wadsworth, concerning the 
exchange of prisoners, in which, in the stately fashion of olden 
days, lie signs himself, " I am, sir, your most obedient, humble 
servant, Jonathan 'J'rumbuU." 

Of the later life of (ieneral Wadsworth, there remains but little 
t'. record. One of the hist<n-ians of Durham writes : " I remember 



DAUGHTERS OV THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



53 



that the boys of the Center School often, when they saw General 
Wadsworth coming on his Narragansett pacer, with his large, erect, 
military figure, with his broad-brimmed hat and his Olympian 
locks, would run across the green to the road to take off their bats 
and make a low bow. This courtesy he returned to each one of 




BURIAL PLACE AND TOMBSTONE OF CENERAL JAMES WADSWORTH. 

us, taking his hat quite off and bowing to each one. Thus he 
encouraged good manners, of which he was a model." By invita- 
tion of his nephews, James and William, who had attained great 
wealth and hcjuor in Geneseo, New York, he spent a year or more 
with them ; but, though surrovmded with every comfort that he 
Could desire, his heart yearned for Durliam, and, after this brief 
absence, he remained in Durham, honored and beloved, until on the 
2 2d of September, 1817, his life of eighty-seven years came to its 
close. 



54 



•Ill|.: V.VVMOS SAINTS OF COX NK (T[CUT ClIAl-TKKS 



Tlic iiisciii)li..n on his monunu-nt is as follows : "James Wads- 
worth of Durliaiu was horn July 6, 173", ^^^^^ clied Sept. 22, 1817. 
His wife Katherine (Juernsey died 1813, aged 81. Their children 
died in infancv.'" " Remember that you must die." 

On aicounl ..f the iiioh ,)ffices in civil and military life whicli 
(Jeneral Wadswortii honorably filled and the intrinsic excellence 
(.f his character, both intellectual and moral, the Daughters of the 
American Revolution in Middletown may well be proud to bear 

his name. 

lAudse McCoy A^orf/i. 

^MKS. FRANK .MASON NORTH.) 



The first chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 
theStateof Connecticut wasthe Wadsworth Chapter of Middletown. 
It was the second in the New England States, Gaspee Chapter of 
I'rovidence. R. 1., having been formed a few weeks earlier. Socmi 
after the formation of the National Society, in October 1890, one* 
of its oflicers, a former resident of Middletown, wrote urging her 
friends in Middletown to form a local chapter, and she herself 
became the first chaiter member of the Middletown chapter, 
riie membership was soon increased to the retpiisite number of 
twelve, and the chapter organized, its Regent having been appointed 
by the National Society, there being then no State Regent. 

(.)ne of llie first questions to be considered was a name for the 
new chapter. Several names were suggested, among others that 
of 'Return Jonathan Meigs" who was formerly a resident of 
Middletown. The name of "Gen. James Wadsworth," of Mid- 
dlesex County, was also urged, the naming of chapters for hero- 
ines having not tlien been suggested. The honored name of 
Wadswortii, which was finally adopted, has been a continual 
source of pride and pleasure, and the chapter has among its relics, 
the old Wadsworth family Hible, a picture suitably framed of the 
Wadsworth home in Durham, and other mementoes. 

Kate L. Elmer. 

(MRS. W. T. EI.MER.) 

*.Mis. i;. Hiowiif Goode. 



ANNE WOOD ELDERKIN 

EUNICE DENNIE BURR 

ABIGAIL WOLCOTT ELLSWORTH 



REPRESENTING 



/IDcmbers of tbc Council ot ^atctv 



JEDEDIAH ELDERKIN 
THADDEUS BURR 
OLIVER ELLSWORTH 



ANNE WOOD ELDERKIN CHAPTER 
WILLIMANTIC 

EUNICE DENNIE BURR CHAPTER 
FAIRFIELD 

ABIGAIL WOLCOTT ELLSWORTH CHAPTER 
WINDSOR 



May 1776 

Tills Assembly do appoint ... a Council of Safety to assist his Honor the 
(jovernor when the Assembly is not sitting, with full power and authority to 
order and direct the Militia and Navy of this Colony ... to give all necessary 
orders . . . for furnishing & supplying said Militia, troops, and Navy . . . with 
full power and authority to fulfill & e.xecute every trust already reposed — or that 
shall be reposed by this Assembly in his Honor the Governor & Council of 
Safety aforesaid. 

Colon' a I Records of Connecticut. 



ANNE WOOD ELDERKIN 



"We must bear in mind tliis fact in regard to Anne Wood Eiderlvin : — 
Women in Revolutionary days lliied a large space in life, but a very small 
space in print." 

" The heroic deeds of many a woman have slipped down into unbroken 
silence." 

— Sarah Vrcsfoii Tiiiarbee. 




TIE VVillimantic chapter was named in honor of Anne 
Wood, wife of General Jedediah Elderkin. Anne 
Wood was the oldest child of Thomas Wood and his 
wife, Experience Abell, who were married January 26, 
17 19. Thomas Wood came to Norwich, Conn., from England in 
1714. His daughter Anne was born in Norwich, June 14, 1723, 
and married Jedediah Elderkin, August 31, 1741. In 1745, they 
moved from Norwich and became residents of Windham. 

One of the few relics still preserved by their descendants is the 
"Coat of Arms" of the Wood family. It was brought from 
England bv Colonel Eliphalet Dver, who was agent for the 
Colony to Great Britain in 1758, and mav be seen in the rooms of 
the Long Island Historical Societv in Brooklyn, to which it was 
presented by a descendant* of the original owner. 

Jedediah Elderkin became a noted lawyer of Windham, and a 
distinguished statesman of Connecticut, and retired at the close 
of the war with the title of Brigadier-General in the Continental 
army. He was born at Norwich, Conn., in 17 17, the son of 
John Elderkin, 3d, and Avas fourth in line of descent from 
the original settler, John Elderkin, who was one of the founders 
of Connecticut. When Jedediah Elderkin settled in the town of 
Windham in 1744 it had been the county seat for twenty years, 

* Dr. Albert Leffingwell of Aurora, N. Y. 



5S 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



and was a place of cnsidcrable local importance. He was then 
tucntv-seven vcars of a-e and became at once one of the leading 
men of the countv, although he took but little part in town 
affairs until 1767 when he was appointed "chairman of a commit- 




WoOD lAMU.Y COAT OK ARMS. 



tee to take into consideration the state of the countrv and to pro- 
mote industry, economy, manufactures, etc. :"* in other words, to 
c«insider whetiier the town would agree to the non-importation 
scheme started in Boston. The committee was aj^pointed on the 
seventh day of December, 1767, and on the tenth of January 
following made its report, drawn up presumably by Colonel 

* Records of tlic Town of Norwich. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 59 

Elderkin, which fully endorsed the scheme and pledged the mem- 
bers of the committee, and people of the town, not to buy or sell 
or use in their families a great variety of imported articles which 
were enumerated. This was one of the first blows at British 
commerce struck by the colonies in retaliation for what they 
considered encroachments upon their rights. 

During the long struggle between the Susquehanna Company 
of Connecticut and the Pennsvlvania colonists, which extended 
over a period of more than twentv vears, Jedediah Elderkin 
served the Companv on several committees — even from its 
formation in 1753. His fitness to deal with knotty legal compli- 
cations was recognized by the Company in 1769, when they sent 
him as their commissioner to Philadelphia to adjudicate the 
difficulties arising because of the settlements made by Connecti- 
cut people in the Wyoming Vallev. Connecticut claimed the 
land by virtue of an unrepealed ancient charter, and Pennslyvania 
also claimed the land. 

During this period Jedediah Elderkin had been repeatedly 
elected a member of the General Assembly from Windham, 
and he was also a member in 1774, 1775, 1776, 1779, 1780 and 
17S3, the most eventful years of the Revolutionary War. At 
the March session of the General Assembly, in 1775, he was 
commissioned colonel of the Fifth Regiment, Connecticut Militia. 
In the same year he was appointed by the Governor and 
Council of Safety, with Major Dawes of Norwich, to view the 
harbor of New London and report places suitable to fortify. 
In his report to the Governor, he savs : "I own I never till 
lately gave much attention to the business or art of fortifying 
harbors, of building forts, batteries, etc., but the alarming situa- 
tion and distress which our countrv is in, and the ministerial 
designs and vengeance aimed at our seacoast, have called my 
attention to look into matters of that kind ; and so far as I can 
judge it is of the utmost importance to secure the port and 
harbor of New London, which would be an asylum for ships, 
vessels of force, floating batteries, etc., but on the contrary if left 
destitute of protection, and if it should fall into the hands of our 
enemies, it would let them into the bowels of our country, and give 
them great advantage over us." 



6o 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Colonel Eldcrkin was one of the original nine men appointed 
bv the (Jencral Assembly of Connecticut in May, 1775, to form a 
Council of Safety, to adyise Nyitli the Goyernor oyer emergencies 
that might arise during the intermission of the Assembly, and to 
deyise means for meeting the same. This phice upon the Council 
1,0 held throughout the xyar. The Colonial Records of Connecticut 
show that he was almost inyariably present at its meetings, except 






JKUEDIAH Kl.UKKKI.N. 

wlien alisenl upon detailed duty or Avhcn the Council was called 
at distant ])oinls. His ability to wrestle with the difficult prob- 
lem of procuring supplies for the army seems to haye been 
especially recognized. He was seyeral times sent tcj inspect the 
iron furnaces at Salisbury, '' t(j inquire iiUo their condition and to 
improyc and increase their product." 

'J'iie need of i)owder at the beginning of the war was as great as 
the need for ordnance and small arms, and at tliat time there was 
no powdt-r manufact(jry in Connecticut. Heretofore, if there was 
anything to be done recpiiring business energy and promptness 
Ciiloncl KIderkin was the man selected to do it. It was now due 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 6 1 

to Colonel Elderkin's energy in overcoming- difficulties, which 
seemed insurmountable at the time, such as procuring machinery, 
material, and skilled workmen, that adequate supplies of powder 
were furnished to the patriots at the outset of the war. 

Later, after submitting the matter to the General Assembly, 
Colonel Elderkin, in ])artnership with Nathaniel Wales, Jr., under- 
took to permanently supply this great want. They erected a 
powder mill at Willimantic, and at the May session of the Legis- 
lature, 1776, Messrs. Elderkin and Wales were allowed thirty 
pounds sterling premium for one thousand pounds of gunpowder 
previously manufactured by them. Their mill continued to furnish 
large cpiantities of powder till December 13, 1777, when it blew up. 

During all the time, in addition to his public service, he main- 
tained an extensive practice of the law. For a time he held the 
office of State Attorney for Windham County, of Justice of the 
Peace, and he was besides a large landowner and manufacturer. 
He was one of the first to introduce the silkworm into Connecticut, 
in 1770, and was engaged in the manufacture of silk until his 
death, a period of over twenty 3'ears. 

His last and, in some respects, his most important service to the 
Commonwealth was rendered as a member of the Connecticut 
Convention which ratified the United States Constitution. It was 
appropriate that one who had labored so earnestly and patiently 
to secure the independence of his country should be permitted, 
as the crowning act of his life, to vote for a Constitution which 
secured the blessings of liberty and freedom to his posteritv. 

Dyer White Elderkin, in his " Genealogy of the Elderkin 
Family," says, " Colonel Elderkin is remembered by a few aged 
persons as a large, tall, and very fine looking man.* He was 
active, prompt, persevering, and capable of originating new 
enterprises and of carrying them out under the greatest difficulties 
and discouragements. He was an honoured and trusted leader 
from the beginning to the close of the Revolutionary struggle. 
He was confided in and honored by Governor Trumbull and the 

* The portrait of General Elderkin accompanying this sketch is copied from 
an old Windham bank-note, kindly loaned by Mr. H. C. Lathrop, cashier 
of the bank at Willimantic. 



r. 



TIIK PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



(.r.uTal Assembly, during the u;ir, as few men were, and for the 
important service's rendered his country, in its hour of greatest 
need and peril, liis name shoukl be ever liehl in grateful remem- 
brance." 




en. A K I.OTTK KI,I )KRKI N. 
(Youngest dauglitcr of Anne Wood Klderkin.) 

Tlie cpitapli upon liis tombstone in tiie old cemetery near his 
liome in Windham reads as follows : 

In Memory of Jedediah Elderkin, Esq., lie departed this Life on 
the J*" of -March 1793 in ;' 75"' year of his Age. 

He was useful in Life 
and peaceful in Death. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 63 

If the men of Windham went out to battle and council and pro- 
vided for public demands, not less nobly and efficiently did the 
women of Windham labor in their especial field of usefulness. 
The burdens of home and family and the distress of war fell 
heavily upon them. They sent out their husbands, brothers, and 
sons to the war, taking care themselves of their farms and stock as 
\\'ell as of their large families. Thev planted and harvested, spun 
and wove, cured herbs for their tea and made their molasses from 
corn stalks. They even builded houses and furnished them 
largely with their own handiwork. One woman, whose husband 
came home in rags on a brief furlough, caught the old pet sheep, 
nibbling in the door-yard, sheared it, and in forty-eight hours its 
black fleece was transmuted into a golden suit of clothes and worn 
by the soldier who was wending his way back to the army.* 

With such support and sympathy from wives and daughters, the 
men of Windham County could hardly fail to do their country 
honor. Back of such acts of sacrifice and devotion must have been 
characters worthy of study. 

Of such was Anne Wood Elderkin the wife of General Elderkin, 
who in the great struggle for freedom proved herself a faithful 
helpmate and a devoted patriot. One of her descendants writes : 
" She is remembered as possessing a sweet temper, thoroughly 
devoid of all evil speaking, and much given to deeds of charity. 
She was also a model housekeeper, instructing those under her 
care in all domestic duties, and filled her place no less satisfac- 
torily than her distinguished husband filled his." 

The family of General Jedediah and Anne Wood Elderkin con- 
sisted of nine children, namely : 

Judith, born in Norwich, March 2nd, 1743. 

Vine, born in Windham, Sept. nth, 1745. 

Anne, born in Windham, Oct. 30th, 1747. 

Bela, born in Windham, Dec. loth, 1751. 

LoRA, born in Windham, Nov. 30tii, 1753. 

A son born and died in Windham, Ma}' ist, 1756. 

Alfred, born in Windham, Jan 4th, 17^9. 

AiME, born in Windham, March 5th, 1761. 

Charlotte, born in Windham, Oct. 23rd, 1764, and died Dec. 13th, 1797. f 

*Miss Larned's Histor}- of Windham Co., vol. II, page iSS. 
f Miss Larned's History. Town Records of Windham. 



64 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

No jjortrait of Anne Wood Eldcrkin has been preserved. 
Charlotte, the voimgest daughter, is said to li;!vc borne a striking 
resenibhince to her mother, and her picture which accompanies 
tliis sketch is a copy of a portrait presented to the Willimantic 
chapter hv a great-granchlaugiiter* of Anne Wood Elderkin — 
the same descenchmt being the present possessor of the original 
j)()rtrait. 

Tlie I'.hierkin home was a center of refinement and culture, tlie 
most [prominent men of the time being among its frecpient guests. f 
A Utile incident which is told by a great-granddaughter is indi- 
cative of Mrs. Iilderkin's extreme carefulness and nicety. She 
was tlie owner of a black satin cloak, and when calling upon 
frieiuls it was her habit to draw out her handkerchief and quite 
uiiconsciouslv to dust off the chair before sitting down. 

Surviving her husband ele\en years siie died June 14, 1804, and 
was laid to rest by his side in the cemetery near their home. J The 
following inscription may be read upon her tombstone : 

'i"o the memory of Anne Wood Elderkin, relict of Jedediah 
IClderkin, Esqr. Discharging the duties of the various relations of 
life which she was called to sustain in a truly faithful and exem- 
plary manner, she endeared herself to all her friends and died as 
she had lived, a meek, humble, charital)le Christian, June 14, 1804, 
the day which cijmpleted the 83d year of her age. 

Sara/i Martin Hayden. 

(.MNS. JAMES E. HAVDEN.) 

*.^hs. CliarldlU- (Jiay Lathrop. 

•f >bss Larncd's Mi.story. 

I The wood used for the framing of tlic chapter charter and for the gavel is a 
part of an old oaken tiniher from the Elderkin house, once the lionie of Briga- 
dier (iciK-ral Jedediah Klderkin and of .\nnc Wood his wife. 



EUNICE DENNIE BURR 




E are familiar with the fact that our colonial parsons 
were the conspicuous men of their day. Their fame as 
ancestors especially is a matter of history. A large 
proportion of the eminent men and women in New 
England trace their lineage to some saint, scholar, or statesman of 
the pulpit. We are not surprised therefore to find that a woman 
endowed with powers and adorned with graces such as were 
possessed by Eunice Dennie Burr, had a parson for an ancestor. 
The Rev. Samuel Wakeman, pastor of the First Church of Christ 
in Fairfield from 1665 to 1692, was a man of vital piety, fine 
scholarship, executive ability, and manv social gifts, and he trans- 
mitted to his great-granddaughter, Eunice Dennie, a precious 
intellectual and spiritual heritage. She was moreover beautiful 
in person and highly accomplished. She was married on JNIarch 
22, 1759, at the age of thirty, to Mr. Thaddeus Burr of Fairfield,* 
a grandson of Chief Justice Peter Burr. 

Mr. Burr was the possessor of a large estate, a graduate of Yale 
College, and a friend of New England's leading citizens and 
statesmen. He served with honor in manv places of trust and 
responsibility — as a selectman, justice, deputy, postmaster, 
member of the War Committee, High Sheriff, member of the 
Governor's Council, member of the Constitutional Convention 
and presidential elector. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Burr were possessed of ample means, and 
entertained at their home in Fairfield with generous hospitality. 
Between Governor John Hancock cjf Massachusetts and Mr. 
and Mrs. Burr there existed a sincere friendship. Governor 

* Church Records, recorded by Rev. Andrew Eliot who performed the mar- 
Tiage ceremon\'. 

Thaddeus Burr was born at Fairfield, August 22, 1735. 
5 



66 



Tin.: PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 






ELNICK DKNNIK BURR. 
( l'"riim a painting by Copley.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:\IERICAN REVOLUTION. 67 

Hancock frequently visited tliem, and they in turn made long 
visits in winter at Governor Hancock's delightful home in Boston. 
The marriage of Governor Hancock to Miss Dorothy Ouincy of 
Boston took place in 1775, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Burr, — a 
social event of the greatest interest to the residents of Fairfield. 

The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Burr were painted by the artist 
Copley. Mrs. Burr is attired in the gown which she wore when 
she attended a dinner party at Governor Hancock's. Both 
portraits are now in the possession of a grandnephew of Thaddeus 
Burr.* 'Sir. and Mrs. Burr had no children. 

In addition to his many duties and offices in the town and 
county of Fairfield Mr. Burr was a member of the "Council of 
Safety" for three successive years, 1777, 1778, and 1779. He was 
therefore one of that famous body of men whose labors in behalf 
of the American cause accomplished so much that Connecticut 
was known throughout the Revolutionary War as the " Provision 
State." He was also one of the first organizers of the Connecti- 
cut regiments, having served, previous to his election as a member 
of the Council, on a committee appointed (in October, 1776) "to 
repair to the army vuider the command of General Washington, 
and (with the assistance of the general officers of this State) .... 
to arrange into regiments and companies the officers appointed 
bv this Assembly." 

Thereafter, when a member of the Council, he was present at 
many of its meetings, and served also on responsible committees, 
being especially active at one time in superintending the ec{uip- 
ment of ships for the war. 

When Fairfield was attacked bv the British in 1779 Mr. Burr was 
absent from home. Mrs. Burr, instead of fieeing as did many 
others, remained in her home, hoping that her acquaintance with 
General Tyron (who commanded the attacking forces) might 
avail to protect her mansion, with its rich stores of paintings and 
furniture, from pillage and burning. The spirit and character of 
Mrs. Burr are well illustrated in the following incidents con- 
nected with tlie burning of the town. 

The march of the approaching invaders could be heard by the 
inmates of the Burr mansion above the din and confusion 01 

* Andrew Burr, Esq., of New York. 



68 Tllli I'ATKON SAINTS Ol- CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

various sounds— the lowing of cattle driven toward the back 
country, the shrill cries of frightened children, and the distressed 
voices of the people as they fled from the town in search of 
some safe retreat. At intervals they heard the booming of 
cannon from Grover's Hill, the shouts of defiance from the 
militia on the Green, musket shots, the murderous clash of 
assault, and in a short time they knew that the British were 
in possession of the Green, and tlial the patriot defenders of 
the town, overwhelmed by the enemy's numbers, had been forced 
to retreat and that they had fled in many directions. 

"There was only a handful of them," said Mrs. Burr to a young 
friend, "and I hear tliat (reneral Tryon commanded three 
tiiousand troops. What could be done to resist such a foe ?" 

"Well, our men made their stand even when they knew that 
defeat was inevitable. They are brave fellows, and they shall be 
iionored for their daring," exclaimed the maiden. Several neigh- 
bors, unable to flee to .the country, had taken refuge in the 
mansion. The riot of war and invasion was surging around 
them. It was a distressed company. Still Mrs. Burr held out 
hopes of security. 

"I have met several of the (jfiicers," she said, "and they are 
gentlemen. I cannot think thev will be rude to us." 

" Here thev come," cried her comjianion, as a dozen men sprang 
through the front door, and j)oun(led the floor with the butt end 
of their muskets, shouting for Mr. Burr. 

"Here, you rebel, where is your husband?" said one of the 
ruflians to Mrs. Burr, who drew herself up with dignity and 
looked liim bravelv in the face. 

"Ah, my sweet, what pretty buckles you wear," said another 
Redcoat to one of the young ladies, as he stooped down and tore 
tlie silver (ornaments from her sli[)})ers while another seized the 
jewels from tlie foot-gear of Mrs. Burr. 

■' i-"inc curtains, boys," exclaimed a jestful son of the English 
aristocracy, as he reached up to the heavy damask drapings of the 
win<lows and wrenched them from their fastenings. " Make me 
tliink of iioinc ;" and he jauntily threw one over his shoulder and 
tossed a second to his nearest comrade. 

" (iive up your firearms, old woman," shouted the leader of the 
band In .N| rs. Hurr. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 69 

The use of such h^nguage, even in the presence of a woman 
like Mrs. Burr, seemed an impossible indignity. She was in the 
prime of life, of queenly presence, refined and gracious, with 
shapely features, lustrous eyes, and a sensitive mouth — a beautiful 
embodiment of the highest type of womanhood. She probably 
had never before been addressed in terms other than of affection 
and deference. 

Mrs. Burr's young companion responded to this boisterous 
demand, saying : " Tell me where the arms are kept, and I will 
get them for these creatures." But the intruders did not stay to 
bandy words with the mistress of the mansion or with any of 
her attendants ; they scattered through the house, breaking china, 
overturning furniture, ransacking drawers, stealing small objects 
of value, making their way at last to the kitchen, store room, 
and cellar, where they helped themselves to food and drink, 
feasting for an hour. When one set of despoilers left the 
premises anotlier took tlieir place, and it was not until after 
midnight that there was a brief respite for Mrs. Burr. 

" 1 believe General Tryon himself is coming," exclaimed one 
of the attendants, who from a front window saw a pompous, 
showily-dressed gentleman come across the yard and enter the 
house. Mrs. Burr hastened to the hall below. 

" I have the honor to address Mrs. Burr," said the intruder, 
bowing with studied politeness. 

"This is not such an occasion, your Excellency, as when you 
were pleased to accept our poor hospitality a few years ago," 
replied Mrs. Burr, striving to control her agitation. 

" No one regrets the cruel exigencies of war more deeply than 
I, Madam. I must request you to hand over to me whatever 
papers and documents vou mav have in your house." 

" The house contains no papers, either public or private, save 
those which concern my husband's estate," Mrs. Burr answered 
with entire self-possession. 

" The very papers that we want," was General Tryon's response. 
"We want them and we want the estate, too, and we shall have 
both, I trow !" There was a note of exultation in his voice. " I 
infer that you have not read the address which was scattered 
through your town before our troops landed, and were subjected 
to the indignity of resistance on the part of your militia." 



7° 



THE PATRON SAIxNTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




TIIADDKUS liUKR, ESQ. 
(From a iJainting by Copley.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 7 1 

"I have read it, Sir, and I have lil<ewise heard the reply wliich 
Colonel Whiting sent you." General Tryon frowned. "I will 
find the papers for you, Sir," said Mrs. Burr. " They are all 
arranged in this secretary," and slie went into the adjoining 
room, followed bv Trvon, who took the documents and carried 
them quickly over to the Court House. An hour later, a fourth 
set of half drunken brutes entered the Burr homestead. 

" Come, come," said the foremost of the band, " show us what 
you've got worth taking and hand it over without further par- 
lev." They were standing near the door in the rear of the hall. 
"Do I not see a watch with its furnishments upon your person?" 
and the ruffian grasped Mrs. Burr by the wrist. * * * 

"Wretch, let go ! let go !" shrieked one of the girls, and seizing 
the brass-handled poker, she swung it above his head with such 
force that he sprang to one side and Mrs. Burr was released. At 
this moment, an otficer appeared and ordered the fellow and his 
companions away from the place. Late in the day General 
Trvon called again with Captain Chapman, a Tory citizen of 
Stratford, who had cast in his fortunes with the enemies of his 
native land. 

" I had supposed, sir," said Mrs. Burr, "that it was an army of 
men and not a horde of wild beasts which had taken possession 
of our toAvn. I have been subjected to the grossest indignities. 
Your creatures have attempted to take even the very clothes from 
my person and have rifled me of ornaments which I use as articles 
of dress." There was righteous anger in the face of the speaker as 
she stood forth the bold accuser of Trvon. 

" These are hard and grievous davs," observed Captain Chap- 
man sympathetically. " We deplore the stern circumstances." 

"You must carry a bold heart, Mr. Chapman, to have the 
audacity to enter mv house as an invader, when you recall the 
many courtesies we have extended to you in years ]5ast." 

" Madam, madam, forbear your unkind speeches. I am not here 
to gloat over your misfortune, but to render any service in my 
power." 

"Then, see that I am treated with the respect and consideration 
due my sex and station. See that my home is preserved from 
further spoliation, and that the few people who have fled to my 



72 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

l)rotecti<.n are saved from the abuses which have already been 
heaped upon me ! " Tlie hidy was addressing General Tryon, who 
winced under the just charges which she brought against his men. 

" Madam, you shall have sentries placed before your door." 
'i'lie Older was immediately given, and a Avatch placed over the 
premises. 

The night was one of indescribable horror. The Hessians had 
been let loose for plunder. They surged up and down the streets 
like an angry tide, making the darkness hideous with their 
mongrel speecli and their brutal deeds. 

The slave of a citizen of Fairfield living on the main street, 
fired a shot from an upper window and killed a British soldier. 
The comrades of the dead man rushed into the house, seized the 
colored patriot, carried him out to the Green, soaked a blanket in 
rum. wrapped it about the victim, and set fire to the poor wretch ; 
and as he writhed in the flames that consumed his clothes and 
scarred his tlesh, the Redcoats gazed upon the scene with savage 
zest. 

Hverything left by tlie people in their homes which pleased the 
cupiditv of the raiders was taken. The few women who had 
ventured to stay in town in older t(^ save their property were 
shamefullv ill-treated. Occasional shots were heard all through 
tile night. J^icpior flowed freely, so that many of the soldiery were 
grossly intoxicated before morning. Finally, after a day spent in 
plundering the houses, the enemv, an hour before sunset, applied 
the torch, beginning at the house of Mr. Isaac Jennings, and by 
nine t>'clock half a dozen buildings in different parts of the town 
were ablaze. 

" The Fire-Urand " had taken u]) his headquarters in the home 
of a Tory family on the Green. Here he was found by the women 
wlio had remained in town, and who made appeal after appeal to 
him to stop tlie firing of their homes. Mr. Sayre lent his suppli- 
cations to those of his neighbors. 

" No," Tryon cried with an oath, " you are a pack of rebels and 
deserve to be hung, drawn, and quartered. Don't talk to me 
of mercy. Haven't you fought the King like devils? Didn't you 
fire upon my men after I had offered you peace and clemency? 
And are there not a score of killed or wounded among our 



DAUGIITKRS OF TPIE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 73 

troops? Is not this place a vile den of arch traitors engaged in 
conspiracy? I'll put a firebrand in everv house"; and the word 
was given. 

It Avas not long before Fairfield presented a prospect like that 
of a fiery sea, so that when night settled down upon the doomed 
place, Mrs. Burr and her helpless neighbors who had fled to 
the mansion, saw from the ciiamber windows waves of fire surge 
back and forth, the blackness of night making an awful back- 
ground for the devouring flame. 

Toward morning Captain Chapman called at the mansion and 
requested to see Mrs. Burr. 

" General Trvon will speak with you," he said, as the lady 
entered the parlor. 

"I await his commands," was her replv. Even then the 
mansion was lighted bv the flames of the burning town, and 
resounded with echoes of the widespread wretchedness and 
revelry. 

" Madam, it irks me to see this distress," General Tryon said, as 
he entered the place and received her courteous salutation. 

The stately, beautiful dame was still the hostess, doing such 
honors as the occasion permitted. Deep lines were seen upon 
her haggard countenance ; she was passing through the direst 
tragedy ; shadows haunted the place and the shadows had crept 
into her very soid. Still she was brave and courteous. 

"What is vour Excellencv's will?" said Mrs. Burr with 
marvelous composure. 

" I like not to burn churches and meeting-houses," he replied. 
''They shall be spared." 

" I thank you for showing respect unto tlie things of God," slie 
responded. There was a pause. 

" Madam, have you pen and ink at hand ? " 

She made her wav to the secretarv and placed them before him. 
In the red, fitful glare he said while he wrote, "Madam, your 
mansion shall likewise be saved from the torch," and he handed 
her an order that named the Burr home as one marked to escape 
the ravages of the night. 

" I thank you for this considerate treatment," she said with 
dicfnitv. 



7^ Till-: I'ATROX SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

General Trvon bowed and withdrew. 

But llie furies still plied liieir busy hands. Mrs. Burr and the 
few women clinging to her protection carried pails and pails of 
water, which they poured upon the roof and sides of the smoking, 
scorched mansion. Their hands grew sore, their limbs became 
weak, and their strength gave way through slieer exhaustion. 

At last the horn sounded for the retreat of the marauders, 
and the enemy was seen to hasten toward the beach. The 
e.xhausted women breathed sighs of relief and cried for joy 
because the house with its precious contents remained unharmed. 
But ahis! while the troops were departing a brutal horde of 
British cut-throats tarried behind and, the guard having been 
taken awav, these demons entered the place, announcing their 
advent with savage yells. 

" I have a protection from General Tryon," cried Mrs. Burr, as 
these creatures rushed upon her. Their answer was a curse. 
Thev seized the gold buttons that fastened her dress, tore her 
purse from her pocket, and overwhelmed her Avith abuse. Amid 
the screams of her dependants and the insults of the invaders she 
fled for safetv to the meadows at the rear of Iu;r home. The 
lujuse with its treasures and heirlooms was pillaged, but she 
thanked (iod that at least she and her friends were safe from 
personal violence. 

From the distant nu'adows she soon saw clouds of smoke pour- 
ing from the fan^.iliai- windows, the fire leaping from doorways 
and roof top ; and the mansion, filled with everything that con- 
tributed to the elegance and comfort of living, was wrapped 
in smoke and llame and at last reduced to ashes. She uttered 
no complaint or lamentation. It was a part of the price which 
nuist be i)aid for liberty. She was ecjual to the task of making a 
supreme effort to save the home, and slie was likewise equal to the 
more dillicult task of rising superior to misfortune and of living 
without a murmur of regret in the humblest circumstances. 

A few weeks after tlie burning of Fairfield Governor Hancock 
paid his friends a visit in their distress, and while together they 
were surveying the ruins of the house he remarked to Mr. Burr 
tliat the latter ought to re-build ; at the same time offering to 
furnish the glass needed for a new liouse, ]u-ovided Mr. Burr 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 75 

would build ;i house precisely like his own in Boston. Mr. 
Burr accepted the offer and built a house the exact counter- 
part of Governor Hancock's ! It is said that the Governor also 
furnished the frame for the new house. ''• 

Mrs. Burr was educated according- to the prevailing methods of 
her day in New England. The common school, the home atmos- 
phere, the social life of a Connecticut town, and a limited 
accpiaintance with certain prominent people of the colonies con- 
stituted our heroine's preparation for life's duties. But the innate 
force and nobilitv of Mrs. Burr's character unfolded with remark- 
able symmetry. Her charm of manner and her beauty and grace of 
person were but reflections of her lovely soul. A kind and sym- 
patheiic friend, she devoted her time and strength to the ministries 
of love and good will. x\s a member of the orthodox Congrega- 
tional order, she gave freely of her services to the various needs 
of the church. Strong in her affections, loftv in purpose, brave 
in hope, unfailing in her patriotism, she was the true partner of 
Thaddeus Burr in his multiform cares and responsibilities. She 
sustained him through manv dark hours, infusing fresh courage 
and determination into his heart, when events foreshadowed grave 
perils and the storm-clouds gathered thick on the horizon. 

And what delightful associations broadened and deepened her 
entire life ! At one time a guest in the Province House of Man- 
hattan Island with General Trvon as a host, shining amid the 
gayeties of the English gentrv of New York ; now tarrying with 
her husband in the simple home of Governor Trumbull at 
Lebanon, discussing points of doctrine or the interesting charac- 
ters of the French soldiers whom the Governor had been enter- 
taining ; now spending the winter months with Governor Han- 
cock in Boston, sharing the intellectual activitv of the New 
England capital with the enthusiasm of a receptive mind ; 
now keeping open house in Fairfield, entertaining the great and 
the gifted of the land — soldiers, statesmen, poets, scholars, the 
Adamses, Quincys, Otis, Franklin, Roger Sherman, vSilas Deane, 
Joel Barlow, Colonel Humphrev, President Dwight (who writes 
most admiringly of Mrs. Burr in his "■ Travels "), Lafayette, and 
last, but not least, General Washington. 

* Histor}' of the Burr family by Charles Burr Todd. 



^6 Tin- I'MKOX SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 77 

The Burr mansion was the center of the social fellowship of 
tlie town and the county of Fairfield. Here gathered in delightful 
comaraderie General Silliman, Judge Sturges, Colonel Smedle}', 
Major Tallmadge, Colonel Lamb, Colonel Dimon, Colonel Gold, 
General Abel, the Eliots, and Aaron Burr. The artists, Jonathan 
Trumbull and Copley, were also visitors here. But time would fail 
to describe the brilliant occasions associated with the hospitality 
of Eunice Dennie Burr. 

Mrs. Burr died August 14th, 1805, in the seventy-sixth year of 
her age, and was buried in the old Fairfield burying ground, 
which lies in full view of the waters of the Sound. In the diary 
of her pastor, Andrew Eliot, there is a brief and pathetic record 
of her death and burial from which it is evident that deep and 
abiding was the impression which this remarkable woman made 
upon her generation. 

The old cemetery at Fairfield has been entrusted to the custo- 
dianship of the Eunice Dennie Burr Chapter. The stones mark- 
ing the burial places of Eunice Dennie Burr and Thaddeus Burr 
may be seen in the illustration ; the stone in the foreground next 
the white stone being that of Eunice Dennie Burr, at the rig-ht of 
which is the stone of Thaddeus Burr. The inscriptions are as 
follows : 

In Memory of 

Mrs. Eunice Burr 

Relick of 

Thadeus Burr, Esq. 

who died August 14"' 

1S05 

in the 76*'' year 

of her age. 

(F. S.) 

In Memor}- of 

Thadeus Burr 

Esquire 

who died Feb>' ig"' 

1801 

aged 65 years. 

The gate at the entrance to the cemetery is the Lich gate, a gift 
of a chapter member who also generotislv contributed the sum 



;S THK I'ATKOX SATXTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

necessarv for the hiiilding of a stone wall on three sides of the 
cemeterv and for restorin:^ the wall on tlie fourth side. 

An honorable distinction has been given to the Fairfield 
Daughters of the American Revolution, in having the name of 
Eunice Dennie Burr to designate their chapter. Her name is an 
inspiration to the noblest achievement and to patient endurance 
and sacrifice. In the record of her loyal services to friends and 
associates, to church and town, to colony and state, we rejoice and 
would preserve it as one of the best examples of patriotism which 
has come down to us from a former age. 

Frank Sa/iiiui CJiild. 



The following are the authorities for tlie story of the attack on Fairfield and 
the l>iirninjr of the Burr liome : 
Atridavit of .Mrs. Hurr. 
" An Old New England Town." 
Records of Connecticut. 
" .-Xn I'nknown Patriot." 



ABIGAIL WOLCOTT ELLSWORTH 




BIGAIL WOLCOTT ELLSWORTH, for wliom the 
Windsor Chapter was named, was born February 8, 
1756, and was a daughter of William Wolcott, Esq., a 
^ ])atriot of the Revolution, and of Abigail Abbott, his 
wife, of South Windsor, Conn. At the age of sixteen, on Decem- 
ber 10, 1772, Abigail Wolcott was married to Oliver Ellsworth 
who was eleven years her senior, and wlio afterwards became 
Chief Justice of the United States under Washington. 

Mr. Ellsworth himself used to tell the following storv concern- 
ing one of his visits at Mr. William Wolcott's on the elder 
daughter Eunice. Miss Abigail, who was too voung to be 
considered one of the hostesses, kept on with her work in the 
corner of the room carding tow (the tangled hetchling from the 
flax), a material which was manufactured into coarse cloth for 
summer wear for farmers' bovs. The young visitor from time to 
time saw the black eyes of Abigail peep up from the tow dust in 
a way that awakened his interest, and the next time he called he 
solicited the company of Abigail ; the sequel of whicli is that 
Abigail became Mrs. Ellsworth, and Eunice was left to a long life 
of single blessedness. 

When Mr. Ellsworth was married his father gave liim a farm in 
Wintonbury, now Bloomfield. Mr. Ellsworth's income was not 
large, and his young wife cheerfully aided him while he was 
"getting a start in tlie world." Milking the cows was not beneath 
the dignity of a woman and was even considered a part of her 
work. Mrs. Ellsworth's milking experience on one occasion 
shows her ability to adapt herself to circumstances. Mr. Ells- 
worth was away attending to the duties of his profession. Their 
first baby had not taken kindly to this world of care and trouble, 
and required much attention from her motlier. When milking 



So 



Till-: I'ATKOX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 







DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 8 1 

time came, tlie mother drove the cow near the door, and attaching 
a string to tlie cradle so that she conld rock it if it need be, she 
watched the cradle while she milked the cow. 

But the humbler circumstances and surroundings of Mr. Ells- 
worth's life soon changed for the better. His ability as a states- 
man and a jurist could not long remain unrecognized. In the 
year following his marriage he was sent as a deputy of the free- 
men of the town of Windsor to the General Assembly at New 
Haven, and thereafter for several vears he represented his town 
alternately at Hartford and New Haven. 

Early in 1775, before the Revolutionary war opened, he was 
appointed, while a member of the Legislature, one of a committee 
of four, called the " Pay Table," whose duty it was to examine, 
liquidate, adjust, settle, and give all needful orders for the 
payment of military expenditures for the defense of the Colonies. 
The duties of this committee increased in quantity and gravitv as 
the financial exigencies of the war became greater. Oliver 
Ellsworth's abilitv to meet the difficulties which arose, from the 
heavy drafts upon the Connecticut treasury, is evident from the 
fact that he was sent by the General Assembly "to lay the nature 
and necessity of the exhausted treasury " before General Wash- 
ington, and to procure if possible a reimbursement of the money 
expended for the support of soldiers in Connecticut, that it might 
be again expended to defray the expenses of the army in Canada. 
His services were several times called for in financial crises of 
this sort. 

In the same year he was appointed with others, by the General 
Assembly, '' to incite and arouse the people west of the river to 
exert themselves for the protection of their country, and to 
encourage all expeditions and enlistments." Onlv a man of 
eloquence and influence would have been appointed to such a 
position at this critical time. 

He served as a member of the Governor's Council of Safetv 
fr<jm 1779 to 1784, when he was appointed a Judge of the Superior 
Court. After the close of the war he was elected to the Conven- 
tion of 1787 which framed the Federal Constitution, and he was 
also a member of the State Convention wdiich ratified that instru- 
ment. He represented his state as a senator in Philadelphia 
6 



8:: THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHArTERS 

from 17.S9 to 1796, when he was nominated by President Washing- 
ton C'liicf Iiistice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 
this ollite he is said to have been the best judicial pleader of the 
early years of the Republic, and it is said that, despite the depth 
c»f his losjic, a child could follow the steps of his reasoning. 

In 1775 Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth moved to Hai-tford where they 
remained until about 1782, when they removed to the now historic 
Hllsworth homestead, near the l)ank of the Connecticut river, two 
miles from the present Town Hall of Windsor. In this home, as 
in the earlier more humble home, the wife of Oliver Ellsworth 
still ministered to his punctilious toilet by providing the ruffled 
shirts, the polished knee buckles, the shapely silk stockings, and 
gave it the finishing touch by tying his queue with the neat 
black bow. She exercised such concern and thoughtfulness 
for her husband's needs that no anxiety regarding household 
cares ever disturbed his public life. His strong attachment to 
his home and native town is evident from the following 
quotation from one of his letters: "I have visited several 
countries and I like my own the best. 1 have been in all 
the states of the Union, and Connecticut is the best state. 
Windsor is the pleasantest Town in the State of Connecticut and 
I have the pleasantest place in the town of Windsor. 1 am 
content, perfectly content, to die on the banks of the Connecticut." 
In 1797 he was sent by the United States Government to France 
as Minister Plenipotentiary, and on his return, before entering the 
Ihjusc to see his family, he stopped at the gate, and, lifting his 
heart to God in prayer, gave thanks for bringing him safe home. 

In the drawing-room hangs a life size oil painting* of Mr. and 
Mrs. Ellsworth, dressed in ye olden style. Mrs. Ellsworth's cap is 
almost overwhelming in size, and the sheen of her dove-colored 
satin gown is toned down by a demure kerchief crossing her 
breast. 

In this home Mrs. Ellsworth entertained many notable person- 
ages with dignity and grace. She also knew how to meet an 
embarrassing situation. A gentleman from Pennsylvania, a friend 
of her husband's, called one day to pay his respects to Mr. and Mrs. 

* Since this skcich was written tlic paintiiior has been removed to the gallery 
(if llie Connecticut Historical Society of Hartford. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



8^ 



Ellsworth. She was carding tow at the time, and was obliged to 
go to the door in her working dress. When the gentleman asked 
if Mrs. Ellsworth was at home, she replied in the affirmative and 
added that Mrs. Ellsworth was very busy this morning and would 
be pleased to see him in the afternoon. When he returned in the 
afternoon Mrs. Ellsworth received him in a becoming gown, 




CHIEF JUSTICE ELLSWORTH S MANSION, WINDSOR, CONN. 
(By courtesy of William Webster Ellsworth, Esq., of the Century Publishing Co.) 

powdered hair, and fancv cap ; the guest not recognizing in this 
stately lady the maid who opened the door in the morning. 

Abigail Ellsworth was the mother of nine children. The two 
youngest were twins, William and Henry. All were carefully 
taught and trained. One son, William Wolcott, was governor of 
Connecticut from 1838 to 1842, and his twin brother, Hon. Henry 
L. Ellsworth, became the tirst United States Commissioner of 
Patents. The following is a list of the children of Chief Justice 
Oliver and Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth : 



84 rUK PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

1. Aiiii-.Aii., called " Nabby" by her falher, was born on the sixteenth of August, 

1774, and was married on the twentieth of October, 1794, to Ezekiel Wil- 
liams, of Hartford, Conn. They had six children. 

2. Oi.iVKK was born on the twenty-second of October, 1776, and died on tlic 

twentieth of May, 1778- 
-,. Oliver was born on the twenty-seventh of April, 17S1. He accompanied his 
father to France as secretary. He died on the fourth of July, 1S05. 

4. Martin (Major) was born on the seventeenth of April, 1783, and married, on 

the nineteenth of October, 1807, Sophia Wolcott, of East Windsor, Conn. 
They had six children. Major Martin Ellsworth died in November, 1857. 
;. Wii.i.iAM was born on the twenty-fifth of June, and died on the twenty-fourth 
of July, 1785. 

6. Francics was born on the thirty-first of August, 1786, and on the tenth of May, 

1809, was married to the Hon. Joseph Wood, of Stamford, Conn. They 
had five children. Frances Ellsworth Wood died in 186S. 

7. D F.I I A was born on the twenty-third of June (January in the family records), 

17S9, and was married, on the seventh of January, 1S12, to Hon. Thomas 
Scott Williams, of Hartford. Conn. She died on the twenty-fourth of June, 
1S40. There were no children. 

5. Wii.i.iAM Woi.coTT (Governor), called "Billy" by his father, was born on 

the tenth of November, 1791, and married on the fourteenth of September, 
1S13, Emily, the eldest daughter of Noah Webster the lexicographer. She 
died on the twenty-third of August, 1S61. There were six children born of 
this marriage. William Webster, the liistorical lecturer, is their grandson. 
9. Ulnrv Lkavitt (Hon.) was the twin brother of William Wolcott and was 
called " Harry" by his father. He married on the twenty-second of June, 
1813, Nancy Allen, who died on the fourteenth of lanuary, 1847. He mar- 
ried for his second wife Marietta Hartlett, and for his third wife Catherine 
Smith who survived him. There were three children born to him. 

There is a tradition tliat when George Washington, President 
of the United States, was in Hartford, on his way to Massachu- 
setts, Chief Justice Ellsworth sent a message to him by his son 
Martin, a boy of si.x years, inviting him to breakfast the next day. 
The boy went down to Hartford in the old yellow coach which 
regidariy passed liis house. It was with much trepidation that 
the i)oy ventured to appear before so august a person as Presi- 
dent Washington, for he expected to see a great soldier, but his 
fears were (luieted when he was ushered into the room and found 
General Washington in a dressing gown covered with designs in 
I'lack palm leaves "just like Father's," as he reported on his 
return home. 

It is recorded by certain descendants that tlie tall silver coffee 
"in. some of the china, and the steel knives and forks which are 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. S5 

Still preserved in the old homestead were used at this breakfast. 
The descendants also preserve a tradition that President Wash- 
ington had a frolic with the children in the nursery, at this time, 
and that he sang to them the quaint old song called " The 
Darby Ram." A leaf from Washington's diary reads, " Oct. 
2ist 1789, by promise I was to have breakfasted with Mr. 
Ellsworth at Windsor on my way to vSpringfield, but the morning 
proved very wet, and the rain not ceasing until ten o'clock I did 
not set out till half after that hour. I called however and stayed 
an hour." 

A great-granddaughter of Abigail Ellsworth made a record of 
the story as her grandfather Martin told it to her when she 
Avas a little girl of twelve years (the date is not given). " When 
President Washington came it was with outriders, and as the 
soldiers neared the house they separated into two lines and 
Washington passed through to the house. Old Kate, the 
colored servant, having been told that a great gentleman was 
coming, looked out of the window and said, Avhen she saw 
Washington, ' I like the soldier better than the gentleman.' The 
neighbors and friends assembled to give him a reception, and 
after they had gone Washington seated himself near one of the 
south windows in the drawing room. Soon after my mother 
came into the room with the two younger children, one on 
each arm, and placed them in Washington's lap. He then sang 
'The Darby Ram,'" the words of which are as follows : 

As I was going to Darby 
Upon a market da}', 
I spied the biggest ram, Sir, 
That ever was fed upon ha3\ 

Chorus — Oh : ho-key, don-key Darby Ram, 
Oh : ho-key, din-key da. 
Oh : ho-key, din-key Darby Ram, 
Oh : lio-key, din-key da. 

He had four feet to walk, Sir, 
He had four feet to stand, 
And every foot he had. Sir, 
Covered an acre of Land. — Cho. 



86 Till-: I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT ClIAPTERS 

The wool upon his back, Sir, 
It reaches to the sky, 
And eagles built their nests there, 
1 heard the young ones cry.— Cho. 

The wool upon his tail, Sir, 

I heard the weaver say, 

IMade three thousands yards of cloth. 

For he wove it in a day. — Cho. 

The butcher who cut his throat, Sir, 
Was drowned in the blood, 
And the little boy who held the bowl. 
Was carried away in the flood. — Cho. 

Among other relics preserved in the family are certain letters 
written bv Oliver Ellsworth to his wife and children, of which a 
few are given as illustrative of his affectionate interest in his 
family even though separated fr(jm them for months and even 
vears by the duties of his office. 

The following are letters written by Oliver Ellsworth, wdiile in 
Fraiice, to his twin boys William and Henry.* 

To Billy ami Ilanx. 

Daddy is a great way off, but lie thinks about his little boys 
every day ; and he hopes they are very good boys and learn their 
books well and say their prayers every night, and then God will 
love tliem as much as daddv does. There are a great many fine 
things here and a great many strange things ; Oliver [the eldest 
son who accompanied his father] writes them downi, and he will 
have enough to tell the boys twenty nights. The robbersf came 
around the house wiiere daddy lives the other night and the 
gardener shot off his two-barrel gun and killed two of them ; and 
daddy believes if the rcjbbers come into his room they will get 
killed, for he kee])s a gun and two pistols charged all the time ; 
and when he comes home he intends to give his ^\\\\ to Martin 
and his pistols to Hilly and Harry. This letter is from our daddy. 

•Copied from a sketch written by Mrs. W. Irving Vinal (a grcat-grand- 
daunhter of Abigail Ellsworth) for the American Monthly Magazine. 

+ I lie reference to robbers, etc., is a reminder that the writer was in France 
during the revolutionary disturbances there. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 87 

The second letter, written in the form of verse, is as follows : 
A Letter From Our Daddy. 

The men in France are laz)' creatures 

And work the women and great dogs ; 
The ladies are enormous eaters, 

And like the best toadstools and frogs. 

The little boys are pretty spr)- 

And bow when Daddy's paid them, 
But don't think they shall e\'er die. 

Nor can they tell who made them. 

But Daddy's boys are not such fools 

And are not learned so bad, 
For they have mamma and good schools, 

And that makes Daddy glad. 

(Daddy won't forget them pistols.) 

The same twin boys are affectionately referred to in an earlier 
letter written by Oliver Ellsworth to his eldest daughter, Abigail, 
when the twins were about a month old. Tiie following is the 
letter entire : 

Philadelphia, Dec. i6th, 1791. 

Dear N'ahby : Your welcome letter of the 7th of this month 
reached me a few days since. I am exceedingly glad to hear that 
the family are all well, and in particular your mamma and the 
two little ones "whom having not seen I love." Your idea that 
they will make two fine men is a very pleasing one to me and 
I devoutly wish it may be realized. I regret the loss of the 
persons who have died in Windsor since I left it, and especially of 
Perry Newberry who bid fair to be useful in life. But so it is, 
while some are coming onto the stage others are going off to 
make room for them, and it is of much less consequence what 
time we spend in the world than how we spend it. This life 
is but an embryo of our existence and derives its consequences 
only from its connection with future scenes. 

The ladies of your acquaintance in this place are freciuently 
asking me why you did not come again. I give them such good- 
natured answers as happen to occur, but have told no one, what I 
might have told with truth, that it was necessary for you this 
winter to become the mistress of a famil}-. 



88 



HI-: rATkOX SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Miss \V:uls\v(irth enjoys high health, which she takes much 
pains to preserve, walking frequently three or four miles befoi-e 
breakfast. The rest of her time she spends much as you do yours, 
in seeing and being seen. She has some advantages beyond what 
ynn had— a richer and more fashionable father, and perhaps a 
fonder one though that is more than I admit, notwithstanding she 
gets a kiss or two from him every time he comes in and goes out. 




MONIMKNT TO THE >U:M0RY OK OLIVER ELLSWORTH AND HIS WIFE 
ABICAIL WOLCOTT ELLSWORTH. 



II you hnd any leisure, which will probably be verv little, I wish 
you w(Mdd amuse yourself with books. It is mentarimprovement 
after all which alone can give sweetness to manners and dura- 
lulity to charms. 

Ollu; must write daddy a letter and Martin must put a line into 
11 and I-anny and Delia must tell Ollie something to write to 
daddu- about the babie.s. With best wishes for vou all, 

1 iciiiain your alVectionate parent 

Oliver Ellsworth. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 89 

Paris, Aug. 5, 1800. 
Dear Mrs. Ellsworth : 

I shall leave France next month, let our business which is yet 
unfinished, terminate as it may. 

If it please God that I see mv family and friends once more, I 
shall certainly love them better than ever.* 

Oliver Ellsworth. 

A short time before her death jMrs. Ellsworth visited her 
daughter, Delia, wdio was living in Hartford. Mrs. Ellsworth 
died there August 4, 181 8, much lamented by all her relatives 
and friends. She was buried in the ancient cemetery at Windsor, 
Conn., by the side of her honored husband who died November 
26, 1807. 

The inscriptions on the monument to Chief Justice Oliver and 
Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth, Windsor, Conn., are as follows : 



(South side.) 

To the menior}^ of 

Oliver Ellsworth, LL.D. 

a Judge of the Supreme Court 

of the State of Connecticut, 

A member of the Convention which 

framed, and of the State Convention 

of Connecticut wliich adopted 

the Constitution of tlie United States, 

Senator and Chief Justice 

of the United States, 

one of the envoys extraordinary 

and ministers Plenipotentiary 

who made the convention of 1800 

between the United States 

and the French Republic. 



* From Styles' History of Windsor, Conn. 



9° 



THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 
(East side.) 

Amiable and exemplar)^ in all 

the relations of domestic, social, 

and Christian character, prccminentl_v 

useful in all the offices he sustained, 

where great talents, under the 

guidance of inflexible, consummate 

wisdom and enlightened zeal, 

placed him among the first 

of the illustrious statesmen who 

achieved the independence of and 

established the American Republic. 

Born at Windsor, April 29lh, A.D. 1745. 
Died Nov. 26th, A.D. 1S07. 



(North si<Ie.) 

Ai5k;.\il Ellsworth 

Relic 

of the 

Hon. Oliver Ellsworth 

Born Feb. Sth, A.D. 1756 

Died Aug. 41)1, A.D. 181S 

A friend of the poor 

AfTectionate and exemplary 

she adorned her Christian profession 

discharged well the duties of life 

and yet, 

"Nothing in her life became her 

like her leaving it." 



(West side.) 

Filial afiection 

has 

erected 

this 

monument. 

Mar\ E. H. Poiver. 



LUCRETIA SHAW 



WIFE OF 



NATHANIEL SHAW, JUN. 

yigent of the {Marine Conuiiiltee, Contiih-nfjl Congress, Comnilssarv of the 
CMilitia and ^Marine, Colour and State of Connectieiii 



LUCRETIA SHAW CHAPTER 
NEW LONDON 




l.l 1 kKllA SHAW. 
(Kroiu a painting by Copley.) 



LUCRETIA SHAW 




]UCRETIA SHAW, whose name the New London 
Chapter would perpetuate in recognition of her loyal 
life and early death in the cause of American Inde- 
pendence, still looks down from her place in the 
galleiy of the Shaw Mansion after more than a century since her 
death. Gleaming in rich attire, of stately presence, and with 
gracious smile, preserved through the genius of the artist Copley, 
she has held gentle sway over the hearts of each succeeding 
generation. 

Mrs. Shaw was the devoted and beloved wife of Nathaniel 
Shaw, Esq.,* an eminent merchant and a most efficient representa- 
tive of the Continental Congress in naval affairs during the 
War of Independence. One of the earliest acts of Congress, after 
the Battle of Bunker Hill, was the authorization, under the 
hand of John Hancock, for the issue to Nathaniel Shaw, Esq., of a 
Commission as " Naval Agent " for the Continent. Long before 
this appointment Mr. Shaw had been conspicuously associated 
with the patriotic movements of the " Sons of Freedom." His 
name appears on the first Committee of Correspondence of the 
Town of New London, in which position he remained through 
the anxious years when the storm was gathering and also through 

* " Nathaniel Shaw the elder was not a native of New London but was born in 
Boston in 1703. His father removed to Fairfield, Conn., about the time of his 
birth. Nathaniel Shaw.Sr., came to New London before 1730, and was many years 
engaged in the Irish trade. He married Temperance Harris, a granddaughter 
of the first Gabriel Harris one of the first settlers. They had a numerous 
family. Of the eight children onl)' Mar}', the youngest, had descendants. She 
died in 1775, aged 24 years. Her Mother died in 1797, aged 87 years. Her 
Father, Nal'l Shaw, Sr., died in 1778, aged 75 years." — From Miss Caitlklns' 
History of N'cw Loudon. 



04 Tin% PATROX SAIXTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

the long- uncertain period of the Revolution. Other changes were 
made, but his name always remained as one of the committee. 

Before hostilities began he despatched his own pleasure craft, 
the " Oneen of France," to the West Indies with the terse order, 
" Buy powder and return at once." This powder was a part of the 
scanty ammunition afterwards used at the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

After tiie siege of Boston General Washington met Governor 
Trumbull at Norwich, to confer with him concerning the military 
resources of Connecticut and the financial ability of the State to 
contribute to the great cause of Independence. Thence passing on 
to New London Washington became the guest of Mr. Shaw, whose 
judgment in naval affairs was deemed paramount to all others in 
the Colony. At this time, and with the participation of Mr. Shaw, 
an important interview was held with Commodore Hopkins 
concerning the object and destination of the first naval expedi- 
tion sent out bv the Continental Government. In this fleet was 
Hopkins' fiagship the "Alfred," at whose peak was first hoisted 
the American Hag.* 

The Colonial Records of the year 1776 contain numerous 
entries of the various duties in which Mr. Shaw was engaged. In 
Januarv there is a record of his participation in the equipment of 
Hopkins' fleet. Following this, in February, it was ordered, 
"that teams and tools for the use of the fortifications at New 
London and Groton shall be provided by Mr. Nathaniel Shaw, 
Inn." 

In March it was "voted that his Honour be desired to direct 
the Committee of the lead mine at Middletown, as soon as may be, 
to forward (uie ton of said lead to Mr. Nathaniel Shaw of New 
London for the use of the Colony." 

In .\pril an order was given "on Natlianiel Shaw, Jun., to 
deliver to Capt. Seth Harding eight of the swivel guns and fifteen 
hundri'd lbs. of powder and four hundred swivel shot, in part 
of wliat the said Slmw has provided for the Colony, and take 
receipt accordingly." 

In May — " \'oted, that an order be given on the Pay Table for 
^300 in favor of Mr. Nathaniel Shaw as commissary and pro- 
vider of materials, teams, timber, etc., for the use of the troops 

* Cooper's Naval Historj'. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 95 

stationed at New London, and for carrying on the works there ; " 
also voted, " That Mr. Shaw, with others, is appointed a Com- 
mittee to procure ^1800, lawful money, and pay the same to his 
Honour the Governor for the use of the Northern Army." 

In July, voted " That Mr. Nathaniel Shaw, Jun., is desired to 
provide supplies of provisions, arms, hammocks, cabouses, rigging, 
and every other needful article to furnish the Colony ships 
fit for the seas as soon as possible"; also voted, "That Mr. 
Nathaniel Shaw, Jan., of New London, is appointed agent 
for the Colonies for the purpose of [procuring] naval supplies, 
and for taking care of such sick seamen as may be sent on shore 
to his care." 

These extracts are sufficient to show the varied activities of 
Mr. Shaw, concerning which Miss Caulkins in her History of New 
London says : " From this period during the remainder of the 
struggle, as an accredited agent of Congress and the Colony, Mr. 
Shaw furnished stores, negotiated the excliange of prisoners, 
provided for sick seamen, and exercised a general care for the 
public service." 

All three of his commissions, — as naval agent for the Continent, 
as agent for the disposition and awards of naval prizes, and lastly 
as agent for the care of the prisoners of war, are signed by John 
Hancock and are still in existence, preserved by his kindred, in 
the Shaw Mansion. 

He was also engaged on his own account, as were other prom- 
inent citizens of New London, in sending out private armed 
vessels to cruise against the enemy. 

During the entire war Mr. Shaw was in direct correspondence 
with Congress through the marine committee who, by correspond- 
ence, gave him instructions and received from him reports, sugges- 
tions and advice. During the seven years of the war various 
changes were made in the marine committee, most of whose 
members were included in Mr. Shaw's correspondence ; thirty-two 
being signers of the Declaration of Independence. Their valued 
autographs, appended to their official letters, are still in the 
possession of the Shaw family. 

But more than anvthing else, the Records of tlae Connecticut 
Council of Safety (appointed bv the Legislative Assembly to 



96 THl- PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




(^ 



S??.' 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 97 

advise and cooperate with tlie Governor in meeting exigencies 
which miglit arise during its intermissions) show the high consid- 
eration which the Council had for his character and ability. jMr. 
Shaw was repeatedly selected to forward the difficult and impor- 
tant measures for which the disturbed condition of the country 
called. Being, through his private business, familiar with every 
detail of the marine service he was especially efficient in equipping 
and despatching vessels for naval operations. To him largely was 
given the difficult and trying duty of negotiating for the exchange 
of prisoners, to provide quarters and attendance for the sick and 
destitute, and to supply them with money, clothing, and provisions. 

Nathaniel Shaw, Sr., built the Shaw Mansion, quarrying the stone 
from his own grounds. It is a family tradition that there was 
already an ample and commodious residence on his grounds, but 
that the mansion was built in response to an appeal of the Acadians 
who, in 1756, landed destitute in New London and who besought 
him to deliver them from charity, whose subjects they must be if 
lie did not give them labor. Hence the origin of the stone 
mansion. Nathaniel the younger, in addition to his large inherit- 
ance, had accumulated very large properties from his business 
and investments, and was able to gratify his generous inclination 
to aid his former compatriots, the Acadians, and to supply them 
with constant employment as his father had done on their arrival. 

At the opening of the Revolution Nathaniel Shaw and his wife, 
Lucretia Shaw, were in the veiy prime of life, Mr. Shaw being 
forty years old and his wife a little more than two years his junior. 
The relations of Mr. Shaw and his wife were most tender, and 
there existed between them not only an affectionate conjugality 
but also an earnest, patriotic cooperation. One of the fragrant 
traditions of their descendants is the romantic attachment of this 
distinguished couple. Letters which passed between them, v.dien 
Mr. Shaw was absent at the Legislature or on business with Gov. 
Trumbull at Lebanon, have all the warmth of vouthful lovers. 

The times offered a field wide and extensive for the activities of 
this noble woman, whose social position and large wealth gave her 
every possible opportvxnity. Mrs. Shaw lived at the very focus 
of Revolutionary affairs, while the majority of the women of 
those times participated only through the services of brothers or 
7 



98 Tllli: I'ATROX SAINTS OF COXXI-XTICUT CHAPTERS 

liiisbands or sons. In a few instances only Avere women able to 
perform some heroic act of daring, or to make direct personal 
sacrifice. Moreover, to most the events of the war came as 
tidings and not as the result of their own undertakings. 

But Lucretia Shaw lived in the presence of statesmen whose 
deep-laid plans were known to her from their very inception, and 
carefully watched bv her through their development to their very 
fuUllinent ; not unrarely the plan itself having been conceived and 
its execution aided by her woman's Avit. Such Avas Lucretia Shaw 
who, living in the midst of the great war movement, was also the 
mistress of a mansion always famous for its hospitality and the 
center at that time of a wide field of action. In colonial days 
distinguished strangers and official guests, visiting New London, 
were entertained at the Shaw Mansion. Before the outbreak of 
the war, New London being the center of local authority, the 
eminent Friends of Freedom were cordially received here, and 
after the war began its welcome was no less catholic. 

(lovernor Trumbull was not only a felloAv patriot, he was an 
intimate personal friend. His duties often called him from the 
war office at Lebanon to New London and, attended bv his 
Council, he was always received at the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Shaw. Their table was rarely without guests of note connected 
with the army or navy or council chamber. General Washington, 
(Jeneral Greene, (xovernor Griswold, a Connecticut celebrity, — 
all the men cjf note in the state were frequent visitors. At the 
Shaw home in the course of a day one might have met all the 
|)atri<itsof local reputation : Huntington of Norwich, when home 
from Congress, Dyer and Elderkin of Windham, Johnson, the 
fainrius Lyme clergyman, and, in the early days before Bunker 
Hill, Nathan Hale, who was a constant visitor at the house of 
his genial trustee. 

New London was on the great turnpike from Boston, via Prov- 
idence and Newport, to New York and Philadelphia, and the 
constant expresses, from high quarters to high quarters, always 
st<ip[)e(l at the Naval Office in New London to receive and give 
the latest news; hence with the freciuent arrival and departure of 
war vessels and privateers, the incoming of cartels with exchanged 
l)risoners. New London was both a naval center and an important 
I'ost-town : thus Mrs. Shaw's home became a well known g-ather- 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 99 

ing place. Every day registered an important event, or its prom- 
ise or portent. 

In the midst of these activities Mrs. Shaw lived the earnest 
and close friend of her husband ; ready to give with an open hand 
to want, and with ever a pitying eye for suffering. Her unfailing 
kindness and Christian charity found abundant field for action. 
She manifested in her ministrations and in her sympathy a perfect 
impartiality ; distinguished patriots and suffering, wounded sol- 
diers and sailors were regarded by her as of the same household, 
and received in unstinted measure of her bounty. The more 
especial objects of her compassion were the prisoners returning 
from the floating gaols and garrison pens of British posts. They 
were usuallv physical wrecks, victims of every imaginable depri- 
vation, who had to be carried in litters by the pitying townsmen 
from the vessels to the lodging places whither they had been 
assigned ; there to be cared for and, if possible, restored to vitality 
before seeking their homes, but who too often passed from this 
kindly haven to the " bourne from whence no traveller e'er 
returns." 

The New London Gazette in an issue late in 1781, the year of 
the burning of New London, gives the following picture of the 
devcjtion of the townspeople to the vinfortunate victims of the 
cruelties of war. 

" It has been the more than hellish practice of these enemies to 
God and man, during this barbarous war, to stab promiscuously 
in the dark, to murder by secret ways, those they cannot kill 
openly, and for this purpose, our friends who have the misfortune 
to fall into their hands are immediately crowded into prison-ships 
and there confined till two-thirds perish with gaol fever, and the 
surviving, being affected (sic) there with the fever, are sent out 
to spread death and desolation through our borders. One hundred 
and thirty were landed here the 3dult. (Dec. 1781) from New York 
in a most deplorable condition ; a great part of them have since 
died, and those of them that have survived are in such a debili- 
tated state, that they wnll have to drag out a miserable existence ; 
numbers in this unhappy town, and in Groton, have lost their 
lives by taking them in, and great numbers of others have been 
brought to the very gates of death and still lie in a languishing 
condition. It is enough to melt the most obdurate heart (except 
a Briton's) to see these miserable objects continually landing here 
from every flag [of trucej that comes ; to see them poured out upon 
our desolated wharves, sick and dying, and tlie few rags they 



lOO Till-. I'ATKUX SAIXTS OF CON -X IXTICUT CHAPTERS 

have oil (.ovcred with vermin, . . . their friends (if they have any) at 
a distance, and no public hospital or provision made to receive 
them ! Thus it is that the compassionate among us are compelled 
bv their dying groans to take them into their families at the 
expense of their lives, until their friends can come to their relief ; 
and they are, for the most part, burdened with them for a long 
time, without the least recompense in this world ; notwithstand- 
ing, 'whole families have been ruined by this means. The little 
pan of this town that was preserved from fire, by bribing the fir- 
ing parties on the 6th of September, is so crow^led by tliose who 
have been burned out of house and home, that it is dreadful 
indeed to take these poor infectious, dying creatures in. In short 
if there is no redress of this intolerable evil, this town and Groton 
must be depopulated." 

When Burke declared, in the English Parliament, his high opin- 
ion of the state paj^ers of the American Colonists, whether they 
were the resolves of popular assemblies, the more formal proposi- 
tions oi. legislatures, or their correspondence Avith the authorized 
agents of the States, he especially extolled their gravity, 
their sound reasoning, their loftiness of tone, and their liter- 
ary excellence. Our forefathers during those momentous years 
manifested an elevation of spirit quite equal to the character 
of their cause. Their usually high moral characteristics seem 
to have risen to a loftier level, and their ordinary virtues sviddenly to 
have been transformed into marvels of unselfishness and sacrifice. 

The devotion of Mrs. Shaw to the cause of independence and her 
ministrations to the sick prisoners place her on the list of Revo- 
lutionary heroines, though she would have shrunk from receiving 
such an accolade ; not counting herself worthy of the honor. 
Tiie last act of her life, one that occasioned her death, was her 
personal attendance upon a number of sick prisoners, infected 
with contagious disease, whom, in the warmth of her pity, she had 
had transferred into the family residence. From them she took 
the gaol fever and, after a very short illness, her beautiful life was 
ended ; her husband surviving her but two or three months.* 

" Duaih ere thou slayest another, 
Good and wise and fair as she. 
Old time shall throw a dart at thee." 

/d//e Richards Perkins. 

* Nalhanicl .Shaw the younger died in 1782, aged 47 years. His wife Lucretia 
died in 1 781, aged 44 years. 



MARY (CLAP) WOOSTER 



WIFE OF 



DAVID WOOSTER 

First Major-General Conneiticiit Troops 
Brigadier-General Continental Army 



MARY CLAP WOOSTER CHAPTER iMARY WOOSTER CHAPTER 

NEW HAVEIN DANBURY 




f.KNKKAL W-.-ll.l. iloL'SK O.N WOOSTKK STKKET. NEW HAVKN. 
il'lau-luancl l)y Mrs. l-rances Sheldon Molton, editor "Mothers' Magazine.") 



MARY CLAP WOOSTER 




flE life of General David Wooster is part of our nation's 
history. A man loyal both to private and to public 
dutv, a good citizen, an unselfish patriot, and a gallant 
soldier ; not his native state alone, but our whole 
country may justly honor his memory. Another shares his fame ; 
tiie brave woman whose life was linked with his, and who, as the 
historian tells us, "from the date of her nuptials till she followed 
him to the grave, clung to his fortunes Avith all a woman's unfal- 
tering constancv and devotion." 

Mary Clap Wooster was born in Windham, Connecticut, April 
25th, 1729. The rare qualities of mind and heart for Avhich 
through life she was distinguished were her rightful inheritance. 
That her father, the Rev. Thomas Clap, was no ordinary man we 
have abiuidant evidence. He was born in vScituate, Massachu- 
setts, in 1703, was graduated from Harvard in 1722, was settled 
in the ministry at Windham, Connecticut, in 1726, and in 1739 
became the fourth president of Yale. It is thus that Mr. Richard 
Woodhull, a tutor of the college under his administration, writes 
of him: "In whatever company he was, and whatever was the 
subject of conversation, he appeared evidently to understand it 
more clearly and more comprehensively than any other person 
present." President Stiles, who knew liim intimately, commends 
him even more warmlv, and the epitaph upon President Clap's 
monument testifies in the quaint language of the time to his 
distinguished ability and services. 

Mr. Clap was twice married ; his first wife, Mary Wliiting, 
being a lineal descendant of Governor Bradford, as he himself 
was of John Howland, also of Mayflower memory. Mary Clap 
Wooster was, therefore, doubly a daughter of the Mayflower. 



I04 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

lollN Ho\VLANn = ELIZABErH TlLLEY GoV. WlLLIAM BkAD1-ORD = ALICE CARPENTER 

dau. of John Tillcy, 

and accordiiifi to the I 

"White Bible" 

trraiukhuitihtor of „ , i-, 

Gov. Carver. Major William Bradford^ Alice Richards 



Desire Ho\VLAND=Capt. John Gokiiam Alice BK..u.FORD = Rev. William Ada 

I.ieut.-Col. T<.iinG<.riiam = Mary Otis Elizabeth Adams^Rcv. S.\muelWhit 



iKMi'i KANci. (;..kil\m = Stephen Clai' Mary Whiting^Rcv. Thomas Clap 



Rev. Thomas Clap = Mary Whiting 
President of Yale College I 

Mary Clap Wooster 

.Marv Wliitino- Clap died at the early age of twenty-four, leav- 
ing two children ; one of whom became Mrs. Wooster and the 
other Mrs. Pitkin of Farmington. There is still in existence a 
manuscript memoir of Mrs. Clap, written by her husband as a 
loving tribute to her fair young life and to her rare ncjbility of 
character. 

A house which stood upon the site of the long-familiar "Col- 
lege Street Church," the present College Hall of the University, 
was President Clap's New Haven residence, and in this house, on 
March 6th, 1745, the marriage of his eldest daughter Mary with 
David Wooster was celebrated. Wooster, then thirty-five years of 
age, was, at the time, in command of the sk^op "Defense," the 
first war vessel built in Connecticut. Authorities tell us that 
" During the war between England and Spain in 1740 the Con- 
necticut Assemblv built, at Middletown, a sloop of war, of about 
one hundred tons, to guard the commerce and sea-coast of the 
colony, and, of this vessel, in May, 1741, Captain George Phillips 
was appointed Ccjmmander, and David Wooster of New Haven, 
Lieutenant; in 1742 Wooster was advanced to the position of 
Captain." Cruising along tiie coast from Cape Cod to Vii'ginia 
as protection against Spanish pirates, the "Defense" occasionally 
ran into New Haven tliat its commander might pay a " stolen 
visit " to his affianced wife. He had chosen wisely and well, and 
tlie day whicli knit his fortunes with those of the woman he loved 
l)rov(.-d a happy dav for Ixith. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AINIERICAX REVOLUTIOjST. 



105 



It is probable that David Wooster and his young bride made 
the first home of their married life in tlie liouse which, until 
recently, stood upon George street nearly fronting College street, 




CORNER CUPBOARD, FORMERLY IN THE GENERAL WOOSTER HOUSE ON GEORGE ST. 
(Photographed by Fillev, by permission of the owner, Henry Tibbals, Esq) 

since a deed conveying this property to David Wooster bears date 
Januarv 18, 1744-45.* Here they resided until 1769 when they 

•■■In iSgs the George street house was removed and upon its site was erected 
the Zunder School building, named in honor of a valued New Haven citizen. 
In Tune, iSgg, with permission from the New Haven Board of Education, a 
commemorative tablet was placed upon this building by the Mar}' Clap Wooster 
Chapter, D. A. R. 



Io6 THE PATROX SATXTS OF COXXFXTICUT CHAPTERS 

removed to tlie house still standing upon the north side of 
Wooster street, not far from Chestnut street. 

Four children were given to General and Mrs. Wooster. 

Makv, wlio was born January 20, 1747, and died October 20, 1748. 

Thomas, born .Xn^ust 29, 1752. He was a graduate ot Yale in the class of 1768, 
was married to Lydia Shelton of New York, 1777, and lived in New Haven 
until December 12, 1791, when he removed to New Orleans. Me had seven 
children. His fourth, Charles Whiting Wooster, was born in New Haven, 
17S5, and died in California, 1848. He was Rear Admiral in the Chilian 
navv in 1S29. He married Frances Stebbins and left one son, Charles 
Francis Wooster, Lieutenant in U. S. Army, who died unmarried about 
1S55. 

Makv, born 1754, died 1754. 

Makv, born October 21, 1755. In 1772, she became the wife of Rev. John 
Cossins Ogden, a graduate of Princeton in the class of 1770, and an Episco- 
I)al clergyman, settled, at one time, in Hanover, New Ilampsliire. Tliey 
had three children, all of whom died unmarried. 

In heart and purpose David Wooster and his wife were one. 
With cheerful courage she sent him from her to do battle in 
the Colonial wars. She rejoiced in the honors paid him in 
London, and the signal marks of roval favor which he enjoyed 
after the capture of Louisbourg. She sympathized in his plans 
for a bond of universal brotherhood — those plans which in 1750 
found expression in the establishment of Hiram Lodge with 
Wooster as first master. During the twelve vears of comparative 
case which Wooster enjoyed, as Collector of Customs in New 
Haven and captain uptui half-pay of His Majesty's Fifty-first 
Regiment of Fo(jt, she presided with grace and dignitv over their 
hospitable luMue. She made it the resort of taste and learning, the 
center of all that was best in the best life of old New England. 
At the outbreak of the I>ievolution she was equally ready with 
her iuisliand to resign wealth, refuse office and receive royal 
displeasure at the call of duty. Her patriotism burned steadily 
as his own under slights from Congress, which could not make 
an Arnold of Wooster. When money was needed for the troops, 
it was with his wife's knowledge and a])proval that General 
Wooster paid olhcers and men from his own jjrivate resources. 
*' The pity of ii " to be told, that in venerable age this heroic 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. I07 

woman suffered impi-isonnient for debt, the key of the jail even 
being turned upon her. 

When General Wooster fell at Ridgefiield and. mcjrtally 
wounded, was borne to Danbury, Madam Wooster was summoned 
to his bedside. She came, indeed, too late for any sign of loving 
recognition, but we may hope that she found comfort in the 
knowledge that he had faced death with serenity, and in the privi- 
lege given of watching beside him as the brave spirit cast aside 
the mortal to "put on immortality." 

Incidents quite unlike in character tell us that, in the public 
mind, also, husband and wife were inseparable. 

In 1759, on the day that General (then Colonel) Wcjoster left 
New Haven to join the forces of General Amherst, he marched at 
the head of his regiment into the "White Haven," better known 
in later times as the North Church. It is said that the most 
eloquent passage of the sermon preached that morning, by Rev. 
Samuel Bird, was the tribute paid to Madam Wooster in the 
closing address to the soldiers and their commander. 

It was doubtless because she was the widow of General Woos- 
ter that, twenty years later, Madam Wooster's house was pillaged 
bv British soldiers and she herself subjected to dastardly insult. 
When warned that British troops Avere advancing upon New 
Haven we are told that she quietlv provided for the safety of her 
household, sending one young girl, her niece, on horseback with 
an escort to Farmington. When urged, however, to make her own 
escape, she resolutely refused. "I am not afraid to meet British 
soldiers," thus her reply comes down to us ; " I have been the 
wife of a man who once fought with British soldiers, and who 
dared, when duty called, to fight against them." So with one 
colored woman, Prissv by name, who would not desert her 
mistress, Madam Wooster remained to gx^ard her house and 
property. 

What kindly treatment Madam Wooster received at the hands 
of British soldiers is shown bv the following extracts from Hin- 
man's " Connecticut in the Revolution." 

Sworn, July 26, 1779, before Samuel Bishop, Justice of Peace 
in New Haven. 



toS 



TIIi: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



•• |,,hn Collins, formerlv an officer in the Continental Navy, 
sick at the home of Captain Thomas Wooster, in New Haven, 
testified that on the fifth day of July, 1779, soon after the British 
army took possession of New Haven, a number of British soldiers 
entered Mrs. Wooster's home (the widow of General Wooster) and 
demanded of her, her silver and silver plate. She told them she 
luul none in the house. They then demanded her pocket, which 
she refused. One of the sc/ldiers seized her by the shoulder, 
swore she had plate, and he would kill her unless she delivered 




CH.VUiS .\NI) OLD SU.VEU, ONCE OW.VED HV MRS. WOOSTER. 
(Photographed by I'illcy, by iitTiiiission of the Misses Chapin.) 

it. Slie then took ;i watch from her pocket and gave it to him, and 
hiid some other trifles on the table, and attempted to escape at 
the door. They cried, ' Damn lier ; stop her ; ' and laid violent 
hands on her, and one leveled a gun at her breast, damned her, 
and swore if she moved a step he would shoot her dead. They 
then demanded her rings and her handkerchief from her neck. 
She asked them if they were not ashamed to treat a woman thus. 
One replied, ' Damn you, do you think vou must wear a silk 
handkercliief when I have none?' As thev were about to use 
violciu-c to i»l)taiii lliein. Mis. Wooster delivered them up. They 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. IO9 

then turned their attention to Mr. Collins and made him a 
prisoner, when Mrs. Wooster escaped." 

The Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, in a sketch entitled " Invasion of 
New Haven by the British troops, July 5, 1779." gives the follow- 
ing additional particvilars. 

"John Miles (who was the father of Mrs. Samuel Hughes) and 
his family were members of the Church of England, and their 
sympathies w^ere with the English government. He took no 
active part in the War of the Revolution, having friends on both 
sides, and awaited the event. A guard was placed at his house, 
which was where the bookstore of Mr. T. H. Pease is, to protect 
the familv. Still a soldier put his hand into the pocket of one 
of the ladies of the family and robbed her of her gold beads, and 




■MOURNING RING REV. THOMAS CLAP. 
(Inscription on Ring, T. Chip, OB lEN 1767, x. 65.) 

took the ear-rings from the ears of others. Many of their friends 
came to the house for protection, and among them was the 
widow of General Wooster. As she came running along the 
street, her handkerchief flying from her shoulders, the soldiers 
in a most dastardlv manner slapped her on the back with their 

swords and called her a d d rebel, knowing that she was the 

widow of General Wooster. After the war was over, Mrs. 
Wooster was accustomed to spend the Fourth of July in each year 

as long as she lived, at the house of Mr. Samuel Huglies 

Here the friends of the familv gathered to meet Mrs. Wooster on 
that day and talk over the events of the war." 

It was in this raid upon Madam Wooster's home that President 
Clap's papers and manuscripts were seized and carried off. If the 
enemy supposed that these were seditious documents, detailed 



no Till' I'ATKON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




COAl (IK AKMS OK TIIK Cl.Al' KAMILY. 

(Kinbriii.lcrc.l by Mary Clap uiioii black satin. Drawn by Charles I,. Camp by permission of the 

owner, Hon. Simeon E. HaUhvin.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. Ill 

plans, possibly, ft)r the rebel army, it must have been a grievous 
disappointment to discover later that they were unoffending edu- 
cational treatises and largely astronomical calculations. Madam 
Wooster wrote to the officer in command, explaining the nature 
of these papers and requesting their return, but was told, in reply, 
that they could not be found. 

President Stiles also wrote a note of inquiry to General Tryon, 
saying that many of these letters and papers were of consequence 
to Yale College and asking aid in their recovery. After receiving 
a polite but unsatisfactory answer President Stiles wrote a 
second note, in which the fate of the unfortunate manuscripts is 
thus revealed to us : 

" On the night of the conflagration of Fairfield, three whale 
boats of our people on their way from Norwalk to the east- 
ward passed by your fleet at anchor off Fairfield (then in 
flames), and sailed through a little ocean of floating papers, not 
far from your shipping. They took up some of them as they 
passed. I have since separated and reduced them all to three 
sorts and no more, viz : Gen. Wooster's own papers, Gen. 
Carleton's F'rench Commissions and orders to the Canadian 
Militia, and Mr. Clap's, a few of which last belong to this 
College. This specimen, sir, shows us that the rest are unhappily 
and irrevocably lost, unless perhaps Capt. Bosswell might have 
selected some before the rest were thrown overboard." 

Madam Wooster survived her gallant husband more than thirtv 
years. The records of her personal life during these years are 
scanty, but family tradition preserves the memorv of her most 
marked characteristics ; her quick wit, vivacity in conversation, 
dignified bearing, unselfish spirit and courageous temper. To 
these natural gifts were added the feminine accomplishments of 
that day. She was famed, we are told, for her excellence in 
old-fashioned housewiferv and for her skill in embroidery. The 
Clap coat of arms, wrought in silk by her own hands, still 
graces the walls of a New Haven home, and by the courtesy of its 
present owner we have been permitted to secure the sketch which 
accompanies this paper. 

Financially embarrassed, largely because of what her husband 
and herself had done for their country in its hour of peril. Madam 



112 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Woostcr seems to have retained to tlie last her most attractive 
qualities. That she lost nothing of her social instincts and 
patriotic impulses may be inferred from the following : 

Extract from jhe Connecticut Journal, 1798. 

"Celebration bv the ladies of New Haven on their own account, 
July 4th, 1798. 

" At five o'clock the ladies of all ages met at the New Gardens 
(foot of Court street) and drank tea under a bower provided for 
the occasion. Madam Wooster presided, and the following toasts 
were given : 

"Tlic Spirit of '76. 

"The President of the United States. 

" Tlie Hero in the Shades of Mt. Vernon. 

" The Rights of Woman, may they be respected by the men of all ages. 

"May all that is amiable in Woman characterize the Daughters of America. 

•'The Worthy Ladies of the late and present Presidents. 

"The gentlemen who have been accustomed to celebrate the 
F(jurth of July will recollect with gratitude that the ladies, fully 
alive to the peace and honor of the nation, kindly lent their aid 
to heighten the splendor of that glad day, by an assemblage of as 
much beauty, elegance and patriotism as this city ever witnessed." 

We have another and a sadder picture in the following letter by 
Madam Wooster's own hand, addressed, in the later years of her 
life, to the masonic fraternity of which her husband had been the 
founder. Its tone of patient dignity under sharp reverses of for- 
tune has genuine pathos. 

" Rksi'kc rAiu.r. Gentlemen : 

"Being informed that the institution of the society of Free 
Masons was designed for benevolent purposes, and that the 
widows of deceased members were autlujrized by propriety to 
apply to you for relief when by misfortunes reduced in their 
circumstances, I hope you will not think it imj^roper or unreason- 
able if I ask your assistance in my present situation. 

" Many of you gentlemen were personally acquainted with my 
deceased husband, Gen'l Wooster, and all of you it is likely have 
a knowledge of his character and situation in life, therefore to sav 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:\IERICAX REVOLUTTOX. I13 

much concerning that would but be repeating what you already 
know, and you doubtless have a record of the relation in which 
he stood to your society as first Master of your lodge in this 
state. How far these considerations ought to influence you to 
compassionate my distresses, I sliall leave to your better judgment 
to determine, but trust they will have due weight with the 
judicious and benevolent among you. Since my misfortunes I 
very frequently recollect what Gen'l Wooster has often told me, 
that the order of Masons was a useful institution and that one 
great design of it was to help the needy and assist the families of 
those who belonged to the brotherhood and were in need of 
assistance, and often would say, * If you should, by any means 
be reduced in your circumstances, my being a member of this 
society may be a benefit to you.' But this was told me in the days 
of prosperity and made no great impression on my mind at the 
time ; for I then had not tasted so largely of the bitter cup of 
affliction, nor did I then even conceive it possible that I should 
ever realize by experience my present situation. So little do 
we think, when the prospect is flattering before us, and we are 
enjoying in abundance the bounties of Providence, how many 
avenues may be opened to let in the streams of sorrow upon the 
soul and disappoint our dearest hopes and frustrate our most 
sanguine expectations. But I wish not to engross your time by 
any needless reflections on the subject, although my misfortunes 
and losses have been so unexpectedly multiplied and various and 
such as excited the keenest sensibility and needed the strongest 
resolution to support. The British troops when in this place not 
only took from me all my household furniture, clothing and other 
loose property, but carried oft and destroyed all my papers, which 
rendered it impossible for me to settle my affairs with any just- 
ness, without very great expense and trouble and consequently 
subjected me to very heavy losses, which together with the disap- 
pointments (which many of you gentlemen are acquainted with) 
have so far reduced my means of subsistence as renders it neces- 
sary for me to submit to the painful task of asking assistance 
from. my friends. These considerations, together with the advice 
of judicious gentlemen to make an appeal to you, have induced 
me to offer you this petition, and if you should find it consistent 
8 



114 



Tlir: PATROX SAINTS OF CONXECTICUT CHAPTERS 



witli the rules of your society to extend your benevolence to me, 
1 shall with gratitude accept whatever sum your generosity and 
judgment may prescribe, and il y(ni shall sec fit to grant my 
request, I trust that the generous and humane niiiui will not be 
without a recompense although it Avill not be in my power to 
return any but a grateful heart." 



WZar^^ 7. 





TOMBSTONE MARY CLAP WOOSTKR. 

Madam Wuostcr had evidently hesitated to write this letter. 
Apparently the existing manuscript is a copy, submitted to friends 
for their judgment and we do not know whether the letter was 
sent to the " Respectable Gentlemen " addressed. If it Avere, let 
us hope that it received the recognition it merited. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REN'OLUTION. II5 

The years sped on with their joys and sorrows. Loved and 
honored in the community that had been her home from child- 
hood, Madam Wooster found many sunny phices along her 
shadow^ed path. She lived to see the success of the cause for 
which her husband had given his life. She lived to see the 
return of peace and the birth of a great nation. On June 6, 1807, 
she fell asleep, and, as we wander to-day amid historic names in 
the old New Haven cemetery, we may reverently pause to read 
the inscription upon the stone which marks her grave. 

" Mary Clap Wooster 

daughter of 

President Thomas Chip 

and widow of Gen. David Wooster 

of the Revolutionar}' Army 

was born at Windham 

April 25 1729 

and died at New Haven 

June 6 1807 

Aged 78 

Madam Wooster was a lady of 

high intellectual culture and distinguished for 

her refined and dignified 

courtesy and beloved for her 

many Christian virtues." 

Jlrgiiiia Hubbard Curtis. 

(MRS. T. \V. T. CURTIS.) 



l6 TIIK PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




(IKNTKAI. DAVID WUOSTEK. 



(Copy of a portrait fouml by Rev. E. E. Hale in Germany, now in possession of a relative of 
(;encTal Woostcr. Plate loaned by Alfred M. AVildnian, Danbury, Conn.) 



MARY WOOSTER 




HE recital of the stoiy of Mary Wooster's life awakens 
pity and admiration ; pity for her sorrows and losses, 
and admiration for her heroic spirit. She was nur- 
tured in a hotne devoted to piety and learning, and 
became the wife of a man whose patriotism was not affected even 
by the most galling ingratitude, and under influences both favor- 
able and unfavorable she unfolded a character of wdiich her early 
associations and her strong individuality had given sure promise. 

Mary Wooster's father, Thomas Clap, was descended from 
Richard Clap of Dorchester, England, who was born about 1575. 
Her mother, Mary Whiting Clap, was a descendant of Governor 
Bradford, a granddaughter of Rev. John Whiting of Hartford, 
and one of the thirteen children of tlie Rev. Samuel Whiting, the 
first minister in the church at Windham, to wdiicli he had been 
called in 1692. It is said that Mr. Whiting's first sermon in the 
town was preached on the lirst day of the week, the first day of 
the year, from the first chapter of the Bible, and from the first verse. 

Mary Whiting at the age of sixteen became the wife of the 
Rev. Thomas Clap, her father's successor in the ministrv at 
Windliam. Her brief life ended eight years later, and two little 
daughters were left motherless. Mr. Clap married again, but no 
other children were born into his family. He was called in 1739 
to the presidency of Yale College, retaining the chair until his 
death in 1767. Through his efforts the college was improved in 
its charter, library, and buildings. He was an eminent natural 
philosopher and astronomer and published several books, among 
which was A History of Yale College. 

His two daughters grew to womanhood amid elevating and 
refining influences, inheriting the strong characteristics which 
were afterward so prominently developed. Mary, the eldest, was 
born at Windham, April 25th, 1729, and, like her mother, married 
early. 

Captain David Wooster,* her husband, was a man more than 

* David Wooster, b. 2 March, 1710, was commissioned a Lieutenant in 1739, 
Captain in 1745, Colonel in 1756, General in 1775. 



IlS Till': rATKOX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

twice her ;i<je, and i-MiiiiK'iitly fitted to g-uide and strengthen her 
character. He was a schohir, a soldier, and a Christian gentleman. 
They were united in marriage on 6 March, O. S. 1745-* 

Separation came very soon. Hardly a month had [)assed when 
Captain Wooster was called to the command of his vessel, The 
Defense, to convov the transports of the Connecticut troops to 
Louisburg. There is every reason to believe that his bride would 
not liave detained him if she could, but regretted rather that she 
could not share his dangers, as she shared his patriotism. Her 
pride in the honors conferred ui)on him in the mother country, 
whither lie was sent w'ith prisoners and trophies of war, can w^ell 
be imagined. During his residence in a foreign land he realized 
the advantage of membershi]) in an order for the promotion of a 
universal brotherhood, and when on his return he introduced into 
Connecticut the order ol Kree Masons, becoming himself the 
first Master of Hiram Lodge, No. i, there was ncj lack of 
sympathv on her part. 

To Da\id and Mary Wooster lour children were born :t 

Maky, born January, 1747, died October 1748. 

TiiOM.\s,| born 29 Auttust, 1752, was graduated at Yale College, and married 

Lydia Sbekbin^ of New York, February, 1777. 
Mary, a second daughter, born May, 1754, died October, 1754. 
Mary, a third daughter, was born 21 October, 1755. Slic married, October^ 

1772, an Episcopal clergyman. Rev. John C. Ogden. 

During the seven years of the French and Indian War Mrs. 
Wooster was left alone with her two little ones ; she doubtless 
suffered great anxiety and suspense during the absence of her 
liusband, then a Colonel in the Colonial service of England, an 
absence broken only by occasional visits home. During the 
thirty-two years of her married life, the twelve years of peace 
succeeding the last Colonial War was the Icmgt'st period vouch- 
safed her of unbroken domestic life with her husband and children. 

* I. History of I)ani)ury. 2. Genealogy of the Woosters in America. 

+ (ienealogy of the Woosters in America (descended from Edward Wooster of 
Conncciicut. \\\ David Wooster, ^ED., F.K.A.). 

I The son of Thomas Wooster and his wife, Lvdia Sheldon Wooster, was 
Admiiai Charles W. Wooster, U. S. N., who presented to Yale University the 
sword of David Wooster, drawn at the time he fell in the defense of Danbury, 
the sash upon which lie was Ijornc from the field, and his portrait, found by 
Admiral Wooster at Santa Ycgo, Chili. 

j^For orthography of the name Sheldon, see History of Derby, by Orcutt, 
i'. 672, sketch in the iiandwriling of Mrs. Maria Clap Turner, daughter of 
I homas and Eydia Wooster ; also (ienealocv of the Woosters in America. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. II9 

The early accumulations of Colonel Wooster, together with the 
property inherited by both himself and wife, in addition to his 
officer's salary, furnished them with ample means. Their style of 
living' was of the olden time elegance, including a lavish hospi- 
tality. Their home was the resort of the cultured and learned, in 
which ]\Irs. Wooster, by her wit, her brilliant conversation, and 
her gracious presence, was the center of attraction. Old comrades 
of Colonel Wooster, even soldiers and sailors who had served 
under him, were welcome at their house and at their hospitable 
board. During this period of peace. Madam Wooster endeavored 
to have the comforts and repose of home life make up to her 
husband for his many years of hardships and privations as a 
soldier and sailor. With the Lexington alarm, however, came a 
war cloud which again shadowed her home and brought with it 
grave anxieties and grievous losses. At the first call Colonel 
Wooster, after having refused a high commission in the British 
army, offered his services to Connecticut in behalf of the Colonies, 
and at a special session of the General Assembly, in April, 1775, 
was appointed Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the 
Connecticut troops. Willinglv Mrs. Wooster sacrificed their 
personal property and a high position for her husband in His 
Majesty's service to the cause of the American Colonies, and 
meekly bore with him the injustice done him by Congress in 
its failure to bestow the promotion which his services in the 
Colonial Wars merited. 

On the morning of the 26th of April, 1777, she parted for 
the last time but one with her husband who, after two years' 
service in the war, now hastened to defend from invasion by the 
British the town of Danbury, where were American stores and 
hospital supplies. General Wooster arrived with his forces too 
late to save the village from the torch of the invader, applied in 
the darkness of the early morning hours, April 27th, to every 
structure not branded with the white cross which pnjtected the 
dwellings of Tory inhabitants. His heart fired with avenging 
justice he pursued the retreating enemv, but fell near Ridgefield, 
mortally wounded. Back to the ill-fated town they bore him, 
through its forsaken streets over which the smoke of burning 
homes hung like a pall, into the house where only a few hours 
earlier General Trvon had made merry. Madam Wooster was 





^^ 







^lL.JLii\ ^^. 





CoHNKK ( I I'lioAKi) IX (Ji.ii House 

IN WIIKII WoOSTKi; DlKU. 

SiiKi.VKs JIkI, Pillars and Dome Blue^ 
Alien ]VI(i(i-, Outside Old Green. 



(I'Uilc loaneil bv Alfred iSI. Wildman, 
Danbury, Conn.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:\IERICAN REVOLUTION. 121 

quickly summoned for a parting more sorrowful than any she 
had yet known. For four days she watched beside him, listening 
to the wanderings of his clouded mind and waiting for one look 
of recognition, until finally his eyes unclosed, the light of reason 
in them, and realizing her presence he gave her one look of 
undying affection and made one supreme effort to voice a fare- 
well.* Through the deserted streets of the ruined town she 
followed him to his last resting place, far from home and kindred, 
and then returned alone to her desolated hearth. 

Such a loyal, faithful wife could not fail to be a devoted mother, 
as her efforts in behalf of her son bear witness. In May, 1782, 
she pleaded before the Connecticut Legislature the cause of her 
son, who had early been drawn over the lines into British service, 
and her plea was successful.! Later, by letter dated May 8, 1789, 
she appealed probablvin her son's behalf to General Washington, 
a little more than two months after his inauguration as President. 
It is evident from his answer, jNIay 21st, 1789, that she recounted 
the misfortunes of her family caused by the Revolutionary War 
and that she asked for some appointment, apparently for her son, 
but there is no evidence in Washington's reply that her request 
was granted. 

LETTER FROM GEORCIE WASHINGTON TO MARV WOOSTER. 
(From J. Sparks' Life and Writings of Washington, \'ol. XL page 393.) 

"New York, 21 May, 1789. 
Madam : 

" I have duly received your affecting letter, dated the 8th day of 
this month. Sympathizing with you as I do in the great misfor- 
tunes which have befallen your family in consequence of the war, 
my feelings as an individual would forcibly prompt me to do 
everything in my power to repair these misfortunes. But as a 
public man, acting onlv with a reference to the public good, I 
must be allowed to decide upon all points of mv duty without 
consulting my private inclinations and wishes. 

* r. Henry C. Deming's oration at the dedication of the Wooster Monument. 
2, Danbury Traditions. 

fin Ma3^ 1782, "Widow Mary Wooster pleads before tlie Legislature the 
case of her son, then in New York. He had been early drawn over the lines 
and into the British service. He had never taken up arms and of late had lived 
in New York, carrying on his trade as tailor, he had made money, and is now 
anxious to visit his mother and make Stamford his future home. He is read}' 
to give pledges of his loyalty to the new government, and is by vote of the 
Legislature allowed to return " — From History of Stamford. 



122 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

" I must be permitted with the best lights I can obtain, and upon 
;i o-encral view of characters and circumstances, to nominate such 
pei-st)ns alone to office as in my judgment shall be the best quali- 
fied to discharge the functions' of the departments to which they 
shall be appointed. Hitherto I have given no decisive ans\vers to 
the applications of any candidates whatsoever. Nor would it be 
proper for me, before' offices shall be created, and before I can 
liave a general knowledge of the competitors for them, to say 
anvthing that might be construed as intended to encourage or 
discourage the hopes which individuals may have formed of 
success. I only wish, so far as my agency in this business is con- 
cerned, that candidates for office would save themselves the 
trouble and consequent expense of personal attendance. All that 
I require is the name and such testimonials with respect to abili- 
ties, integrity and fitness as it may be in the power of the several 
applicants to produce. 

" Bevond this nothing with me is necessary or will be of any avail 
to them in my decisions. In the meantime I beg yovi will be 
persuaded, madam, that, let the result be whatsoever it may, I can 
liave no interest to promote but that of the public ; and that I 
remain in all personal considerations, with the highest respect. 
Your most obedient servant." 

Anuuig other sacrifices made by General Wooster during the 
Revolutionary War, of which all record was destroyed, we have 
Madam Wooster's word for the following : When General 
Wooster, in command of the Connecticut troops, started on an 
expedition against the eneniv, he had often said to her : "I cannot 
go with these men without money," and from his own private 
funds was accustomed to pay officers and men. The receipts for 
the m(jney thus advanced were all destroyed when her house was 
sacked by the British in 1779, and Madam Wooster's finances were 
so reduced by the war that, after it, this loval woman was impris- 
oned for debt, the keys of the jail even being turned upon her. 

Undaunted still, this woman of heroic mould bore bravely her 
I)ecuniary reverses, in spite of which she retained much of her 
early vigor even in old age, and in her declining years was sur- 
rounded by friends whose love and respect brightened and 
cheered her to the last. 

An incident in tiie latter part of her life gives evidence of her 
vig(u- and cheerfulness. On the last evening of the last century, 
when more than seventy years of age, she was present at an 
assembly in New Haven ; the first she had attended since the 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 23 

middle of the eighteenth century. She was very animated, and in 
the course of the evening when all of the musicians except the 
drummer boy were absent she asked him to play some of her 
favorite airs. While Washington's March was being given, a 
gentleman twenty years her junior, Mr. Isaac Beers, took her by 
the hand and promenaded with her up and down the hall, keeping 
step with the music. The occurrence created a pleasant sensation 
among the guests, who enthusiastically applauded the gallantrv of 
her partner and the grace of the lady. 

Madam Wooster died June 6th, 1807, at the age of seventy-eight, 
in New Haven, where all but a few of her years were spent. She 
rests near the burial place of her father, but her husband's grave 
is in Danbury. Two Chapters of Connecticut D. A. R. honor her 
memory. On April 27th, the anniversary of the day on which 
General Wooster was wounded, the Mary Wooster Chapter of 
Danbury places a laurel wreath u]X)n his tomb in the cemetery 
called, for the martvred soldier who lies there, the Wooster Ceme- 
tery ; and the loving, faithful wife is not forgotten. A floral 
tribute to the memory of Mary Wooster is laid near that of her 
husband by the Chapter which bears her name. 

THE WOOSTER JMONUMENT. 

The monument is of Portland granite, forty feet in height, on a 
base eight feet square. It stands on a solid platform seventy feet 
square, at the corners of which are massive stone posts support- 
ing an iron railing. The plinth is richly moulded with the 
name of Wooster in large, raised letters on the front or south 
side. 

Above, a finely sculptured relief represents the General as falling 
from his horse at the moment he received the fatal ball. On the 
opposite side is a memorial inscription. On the east side are 
representations of various Masonic emblems, and on the reverse 
side is a Masonic inscription. On the part of the shaft, above the 
figure in relief, appear the State arms ; and higher, a trophy com- 
posed of sash, sword, and epaulettes ornaments the main shaft. 

A globe surmounts the whole, on which is poised the American 
eagle. On the north side is the following inscription : 



1-4 THE PATRO.NT SAINTS OF CONx\ECTICUT CHAPTERS 

David Wooster, 

First Maj.-Gen. of the Conn, troops 

in the 

Arm}' of the Revolution : 

Brig.-Gen. of the United Colonies : 

Horn at Stratford, March 2, 1710-11: 

Wounded at Ridgefield, April 27, 1777, 

while defending the liberties of 

America, 

and nobly died at Danbury, 

May 2d, 1777. 

Of his countr}^ Wooster said : 

" My life has ever been devoted to her service from my youth up, 

though never before in a cause like this ; a cause for which I 

would most cheerfull}' risk — nay lay down my life ! " 

On the east side is this iiiscri]3tion : 

Brother David Wooster, 

Impressed while a stranger in a foreign land 

with the necessity of some tie 

that should unite all mankind in a 

Universal Brotherhood, 

he returned to his native country and procured 

from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts 

a Charter, 

and first introduced into Conn. 

that Light which has warmed the widows' heart 

and illumined the orphans' pathway. 

Under this Charter in 1750, 

Hiram Lodge No. i of New Haven was organized, 

of which he was the first Worshipful Master. 

Grateful for his services 
as the Master Builder of their oldest Temple, |i 

for his fidelity as a Brother, •! 

and his renown as a patriot and a soldier, ' 

the Free and Accepted Masons " 

have united with his native State and the citizens of 
Danbury 
in rearing and consecrating 
this Monument to his memorv. 
Erected at Danbury, A.L. 5S54, A.D. 1S54, David Clark, G. Master. 

Helen Meeker. 



Authorities used in preparing this sketch are : 
Clap Genealogy. Boston Library. 
Genealogy of the Woosters in America. 
Barber's History of Connecticut. 
Chambers' Encyclopedia. 

Henry C. Deming's Oration at the Dedication of Wooster Monument. 
History of Stamford. 
Washington's Correspondence. 
American .Monthly Magazine— Letter of a Yale College Student. 



ELIZABETH PORTER PUTNAM 



MOTHER OF 



ISRAEL PUTNAM 



DEBORAH AVERY PUTNAM 

WIFE OF 

ISRAEL PUTNAM 

Bnajdier-Geucral Comic cti cut Troops 
Mjjor-Geih'ial Continental Aiinv 



ELIZABETH PORTER PUTNAM CHAPTER 
PUTNAM 

DEBORAH AVERY PUTNAM CHAPTER 
PLAINFIELD 



"Israel Putnam IkuI fought the Indians and the French for a score of years 

and in a score of battles He had known what it was to have his comrades 

scalped before his face .... and to stand bound to the trunk of a tree with a 

torture lire crackling about him From adventures [like these] he would 

go home to build fences with no consciousness of heroism, and still less with 
any anticipation of the world famous scenes for his part in which these experi- 
ences in the wilderness were training him." 

Sir George Otto Trevi'ljan, Bart. 

•' His name has long been .... one of the talismanic names of the Revolu- 
tion, the very mention of which is like the sound of a trumpet." 

IVashinaton Irving. 



ELIZABETH PORTER PUTNAM 




LIZABETH PORTER PUTNAM was the daiighter 
of Israel and Elizabeth (Hathorne) Porter and grand- 
daughter of John and Mary Porter, the emigrant pro- 
^Jj genitors of tlie Porters of Essex County, Massacliusetts. 

On her motlier's side she was the granddaughter of Major and 
Ann Hathorne, wliose country seat was on the spot where the 
asylum now stands in Danvers, Massachusetts. Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, the celebrated novelist, was of the same lineage. 

Elizabeth Porter was born in 1673, and died in 1746. When 
sixteen years and six months old she was married to Joseph 
Putnam of Salem (now Danvers), son of Lieutenant Thomas Put- 
nam and grandson of the first John Putnam. Joseph was 
conspicuous in the days of witchcraft on account of his opposi- 
tion to the trials. He did all in his power to show his disapproval 
of Rev. Samuel Parris and other leaders in the strange delusion. 
We can easily picture these as anxious days for the youthful 
wife ; for history says that Joseph Putnam kept his fleetest horse 
saddled continually for six montlis, in order to escape at a 
moment's warning from any one who might attempt to arrest 
him. 

After the death of his father the homestead, then regarded as a 
house of the better class in New England, was inherited by 
Joseph Putnam, and to this comfortable home he took his wife 
Elizabeth. He became a valuable member of society and she was 
a worthy helpmate. His father had left him a large estate, and 
for those times the Putnams were really opulent. 

In these remote days it is impossible to gather out of the 
distant and misty past any particulars of Elizabeth Putnam's life, 
but we know that she reared a laree and noble family of children. 



128 



THE PATRON SAIXTS OF (OX X ECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Her clnldren were as follows : 

1. Mary, b. 2d Feb., 1690; m. Bartliolomew Putnam. 

2. Elizabeth, b. i2tb April, 1696 ; in. 1714, Jona. Putnam (son of Capt. Jona.) ; 

slic m. 2cl, 1736, Capt. Bcnj. Houlton ; m. 3d, 1745, Edw. Carlton of Haver- 
hill. Her grandson, Perley Putnam, was slain at Lexington, 19th April, 
1775, and his brother Nathan wounded. Her granddau., Sarah Putnam, 
m. Henry Putnam, who was also at Lexington. 

3. Sarah, b. 1697 ; m. 1716, Eleazer Brown. 

4. Wn.i.iAM, b. 1700; m. Elizabeth Putnam. 

5. Rachki., b. 1702 : m. 1723, John Trask ; ni. 2d, John Leach. 




HOME OK ELIZABETH PORTER PUTNAM AND BIRTHPLACE OF ISRAEL PUTNAM. 

(Rear view.) 

6. Anne, m. Col. Jethro Putnam, Revolutionary soldier. 

7. David, b. 1707. A colonel famous as a local cavalry officer before the Revo- 

lution. His descendants in Danvers live at the Putnam homestead. 
S. EiNiCE, b. 1710; m. 1731, Thomas Perley, 
9. and 10. Died in infancy. 

11. HiLDAH, b. 1717; m. 1734, Francis Perley. 

12. Israel, b. 7th Jan., 171S ; m. 173S, Hannah Pope; m. 2d, 1767, Deborah 

Avery Gardiner. 

13. Mkiii rAi;i,E, b. 1720; m. 1741, Richard, son of John Dexter. 

Her descendants number hundreds living to-day ; and the inter- 
marriages with Putnam cousins, whose children again intermarried 
with other Fiitnams, have given rise to the host of Putnams 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AIMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



I 29 



claiming near relationship to* her noted son, Gen. Israel Putnam. 
Among her many distinguished descendants may be mentioned 
the late Douglas Putnam of Marietta, Ohio, grand hel]3er of Mari- 
etta College ; the Hon. Frederic Ward Putnam, of Harvard 
TTiiiversitv ; the late George Palmer Putnam, founder of the 



Slmnu^ 






ROOM IN WHICH ISRAEL PUTNAM WAS BORN. 



publishing house of G. P. Putnam's Sons. His son George 
Haven Putnam has written a valuable work on the history of 
book-making ; another son, Herbert Putnam, is librarian of the 
Congressional Librarv at Washington, D. C. 

Elizabeth Putnam's most famous son. Gen. Israel Putnam, was 

born Janiiarv 7, 17 18, and the very chamber in which he first saw 

the light mav still be seen in the old house which stands only 

two or three minutes' walk from "Swan's Crossing" on the Salem 

9 



1 ^o 



THE I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



and Lawrence railroad. Large additions were made to this 
venerable farmhouse in 1744 and also in 1831, but the original 
structure has been preserved intact. 

Opportunities for education were very limited in those days, 
but Lsrael Putnam had the usual education of the day. He pos- 
sessed also a rich inheritance of individuality, and the fact that, 
later in life, he was able to maintain such influence and popu- 
larity among officers accustomed to polite and educated society 
argues well for the gentle InMuence of his mother during his early 
vcars. 




Bnn'HPL.A.CK UK ISRAEL PUTNAM AS IT NUVV APPEARS. 



His father died in 1724 and his l)()yhood was spent at his birth- 
place under the special guidance of his mother, until her second 
marriage, 15th May, 1727, to Capt. Thomas Perley when he prob- 
ablv went to live at the home of his stepfather in Boxford, 
Massachusetts. 

When old enough to take charge of the share of the farm left 
liim by his father he returned to Danvers, built a small house not 
far from his birthplace, and at twenty-one years of age married 
Hannah, daugiiter of Joseph and Mehitable Pope of Danvers, who 
was his trusted helper until her death in 1765. 

They had five sons and live daughters as follows : 

1. IsKAEi,, Jr., b. 28tli [an.. 1740. 

2. David, b. loih March. 1742. 

3. MaNNAM, b. 25th Allfr., 1744. 

4. Ei.iz AiiF.Tii, b. 20th March, 1747. 

5. MKiMTAP.i.r,, b. 2ist Oct., 1749. 
(j. Moi.i.v, 1). loth May, 1753. 

7. KuMCK, b. loili Jan., 1756. 

8. Danul, b. 1 8th Nov., 1759. 
<). David, b. 14th Oct., 1761. 

10. 1'ktkk Schuyi.kk, b. 31st Dec, 1764. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 13X 

Two years after his marriag-e to Hannah Pope, this enterprising 
young man purchased about live hundred acres of land in Pom- 
fret, Connecticut, and removed there with his famil}-. His 
mother, Elizabeth Porter Putnam Perley, lived six years after his 
departure and was seventy-three years old when she died in 1746. 
But no definite facts concerning her last years have been discov- 
ered, and henceforth our interest in her is transferred to lier dis- 
tinguished son. 

The sixteen years following Israel Putnam's settlement in Con- 
necticut were spent in hard, persevering work upon the soil. It 
was during this period of his life on the farm that tiie famous 
wolf hunt occurred, so well described in the "History of Wind- 
ham County."* The preservation of this adventure in history is 
of special importance not only because of the picture it contains 
of the home life of Connecticut settlers during the Colonial 
period, but because the account contains a graphic picture of the 
youth Israel Putnam as he was probably known to his mother. 

" For vears this creature (Pomfret's last wolf) ranged and rav- 
aged the country. There was not a farm or door-yard safe from 
her incursions. Innumerable sheep, lambs, kids, and fowls had 
fallen into her clutches. Little children were scared by her out 
of sleep and senses ; boys and girls feared to go to school or drive 
the cows home, and lonely women at night trembled for absent 
husbands and children. In summer she was wont to repair to 
wilder regions northward, returning in autumn with a young 
family to her favorite haunt in Pomfret. These cubs were soon 
shot by watchful hunters, but the more wary mother resisted every 
effort. She evaded traps, outwitted dogs, and made herself, in the 
words of her biographer, 'an intolerable nuisance.' 

" The great increase of stock, following the sale and occupation 
of Belcher's tract, opened a new source of supply to this enter- 
prising and keen-sighted animal. Israel Putnam's farm was only 
separated by a deep, narrow valley from her favorite hillside. 
This young farmer had devoted himself to the cultivation of liis 
land with much skill and energy, and within two or three years 
had erected a house and outbuildings, broken up land for corn 
and grain, set out fruit trees, and collected many valuable cattle 
and sheep. This fine flock soon caught the fancy of his apprecia- 
tive neighbor, and one morning some seventy sheep and goats 

* A model local history, written b)- Miss Ellen D. Larned, honored member 
of the Elizabeth Porter Putnam Chapter, D. A. R. (p. 360). 



132 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

were reported killed, besides many lambs and kids torn and 
wounded. Putnam was greatly exasperated by this loss and 
buteherv. lie was not one to submit tamely to such inflictions. 
From his boyhood he had been distinguished for his courage and 
reckless daring. He was a bold rider, a practiced and successful 
luuiter. He had a bloodhound of superior strength and sagacity. 
His stock was very dear to him, and he at once resolved to rid 
Pomfret of this nuisance. For books, at this time, young Putnam 
cared little. 'The United Library Association' had no attraction 
for him, but he was very eager to enter into combinaticjn with 
others for the destruction of this ' pernicious animal.' With five 
of his neighbors he agreed to hunt the wolf continiiously by 
turns till they had caught and killed her. 

" How long they watched and waited is not known. The final 
hunt is believed to have occurred in the winter of 1742-3. A 
light snow-fall tlie night preceding enabled the watchful hunters 
to trace the wolf far westward over hill and valley, and thence 
back to her lair in Pomfret. The report of their success in track- 
ing the enemy had preceded them, and men and boys, with dogs 
and guns, hurried out to meet the returning hunters and join in 
the pursuit and capture. The track led onward into the heart of 
that savage fastness never before penetrated by white man. 

"John Sharp — a lad of seventeen, grandson of the first William 
Shar[) of Mashamoquet — ran, boy-like, in advance of the others, 
following the trail up the icy crag as it wound on between over- 
hanging rocks, gnarled stumps and fallen tree-trunks to a small 
ojiening among the granite boulders of the hillside — the mouth, 
apparently of a narrow cave or passage, tunnelling far down into 
the depths of the earth. A joyful shout from the lad announced 
the discovery of the wolf's hiding-place. The news soon spread 
through the neighborhood, bringing new actors and spectators. 
(jreat was the interest and excitement. The wolf was trapped, 
but how could she be taken ? The day was spent in fruitless 
efforts to force her from her position. Hounds were sent in but 
came back cowed and wounded. Straw and brimstone were 
burned in the cavern's mouth without effect. Secure in her rock- 
bound fortress, the enemy disdained to parlev or surrender. 
Xight brought with it new fears and anxieties. The cave might 
iiave some outlet by which the wolf might steal awav in the dark- 
ness. After all their efforts and anticipated triumph, it was 
possible that their foe might even now escape them. 

" It docs not appear that Putnam had joined in the huiu or siege, 
or that his absence was noted or regretted. The future world- 
renowned General was then a person "of very little consequence. 
He was a young man and a stranger. He was not connected with 
any of Pomfret's old families. Pie lived in Mortlake, with whose 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



^33 



inhabitants Pom fret had as little concern as possible. He was 
not a member of the church, school committee, or library associa- 
tion. He was only a roug-Ji young farmer making his own way in 
the world, with a good eye for stock and a very superior blood- 
hound which in this moment of despondency was remembered 
and summoned to the rescue. 

" But the obscure young farmer of 1743 had every distinguish- 
ing characteristic of the brave 'Old Put' of "76.' A crisis 
brought him at once 'to the front.' Emergency and peril proved 
him a leader. With dog and gun he instantly obeyed the sum- 




THE WOLF DEN. 



mons. His coming changed the aspect of affairs. Doubt and 
fear vanished before his eagerness and impetuosity. Not a 
moment was to be lost. The wolf must be routed at once, what- 
ever the hazard. If she would not come to them they must go to 
her. The passage must be stormed, and its hidden citadel carried. 
If dog and negro declined the hazardous service, Putnam himself 
was ready for the onset. Remonstrance and representation of 
danger were unheeded. Divesting himself of coat and waistcoat, 
with a rope fastened around his body and a blazing torch in his 
hand, he slowly crawled down the black, icy, narrow passage— ' a 
mansion of horror,' unvisited before but by ' monsters of the 
desert ' — and at its farthest extremity descried the glaring eye- 
balls of his ten-ified adversary. Drawn back by those without he 
descended a second time with torch and weapon, and with one 



134 THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

dexterous shot brought down the wolf as she prepared to take the 
defensive, 'and the people above, with no small exultation, 
dragged them both out together.' Pomfret's last wolf was 
desn-oyed, and her most famoiis hero brought to her knowledge." 

Vhc den is to-dav one of the most interesting historical spots in 
Connecticut and the Mecca for many patriot pilgrims. 

Immediatclv after its organization, in 1897, the Elizabeth Porter 
Putnam Chapter purchased the eighty acre tract in Pomfret in 
which the Wolf Den is located, and, with the kind cooperation of 
many friends, has become the possessor (jf the property without 
encumbrance. An old well has been restored and equipped with 
the old-fashioned well-sweep, and a new entrance effected to this 
scene of historic interest. Old Glory is kept waving over the 
Wolf Den and is the sole guardian of this lonely spot, moved 
hv gentle breezes or buffeted by the storms and winds of winter, 
through long dark nights or peaceful days, in starlight or sunlight, 
and should ever guard, in this dense forest wild, a spot so dear to 
everv true American heart. 

Israel Putnam's military career began in the Colonial Wars. 
He was thirty-seven years old when Connecticut was called upon 
to furnish one thousand men to help rescue Crown Point and the 
regitui about Lake George from the French. Putnam was not 
only among the first to enlist, but raised a company of men from 
the neighborhood about his home and was appointed, with the 
title of captain, to the command of these recruits before he had 
seen a single day's military service. 

With the exception of brief visits to Pcunfret the seven A-ears 
following were spent in campaigns in the wilderness. His biog- 
raphers relate many adventures experienced and hardships 
b(jrne during this period. The saving of the magazine at Fort 
Kdward, at the imminent peril of his life, the flight from the 
Indians by skilfully steering his boat through the dangerous 
ra])i(ls of the Hudson where the savages dare not follow, at 
another time his capture by the Indians, the narrow escape from 
death at the stake, the weary march to Ticonderoga and thence to 
M(uitreal, and the many cruelties suffered in captivity make up a 
list of experiences any one of which would make him famous for 
courage and endurance. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



135 




_r'"^- 

.Senior Mai^k|J.-U L , 
%WiiS hortf at Salegi 

*'— Frovsme^of M^L„, 
fteiev'^5ithd|y of), 



[ac 



I7|8 

^11 d died 

On tlie IwentyninA tl vf pf i 3ay 






In 1759 Putnam was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant- 
Colonel and saw the capture of botli Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point, and in 1760 the surrender of Montreal. 

Then the scene shifted to 
the French possessions in 
the West Indies where 
success followed success 
for Putnam, and he re- 
turned home with the title 
of Colonel. Soon after he 
hung out his sign as an inn- 
keeper, and a most enter- 
taining host he must have 
been ; full of tales of his 
remarkable adventures on 
land and sea. 

He himself stated that he 
never felt any bodily fear, 
having no inheritance of 
"nervousness" such as 
many mothers of the pres- 
ent day bequeath to their 
children. We may there- 
fore safely conclude that 
this hero, " whose generos- 
ity was singular, whose 
honesty was proverbial," 
owed much of the gentler side of his character, which made his mar- 
velous bravery and sterling patriotism all the more marked, to 
his mother, Elizabeth Porter Putnam. 

Abbic Page Daniels. 

(MRS. FREDERICK: J. DANIELS.) 



l;li( iMKL\'.N, AM) N< 

I HISTORICAL SOCIETV 



Facts for this sketch were furnished by Mr. Eben Putnam, of Salem, Mass. 
Gleanings have been made from the " Life of Israel Putnam," by I. N. Tarbox, 
and from an article published by William Farrand Livingstone in New England 
Magazine for Oct., 1897. 



DEBORAH AVERY PUTNAM 




•' tlic ix'ople of Windham County were to be asked, 
" WIu) Stan .is to the county in the attitude of Washing- 
ton to the United States?" the reply would invariably 
be "Israel Putnam." 
It is more diflicult to decide who was tiie first lady of the 
county, so little is said of our women : but, written distinctly on 
history's page, we find the name by which she was best known, 
Madam Deborah Avery Putnam. 

Thiseniinent woman was the daughter of Samuel and Deborah 
(Crcnv) Lothrop, and was born at Norwich, January 9tii, 17 19. 
The first representative of the Lothrop (or Lathrop) family in 
New England was Rev. John Lothrop, the great-great-grand- 
father of Madam Putnam. He came to vScituate, Mass., in 1634, 
and was later at Barnstable, Mass. His son Samuel married in 
1644 Elizabeth Scudder, and removed with his family to New 
London, Conn., and in 1668 to Norwich, Cxjnn. Their son 
Samuel, Jr., who was born in 1650, married in 1675 Hannah 
Adgate, and their son, tiie third Samuel, was born in 1685. 
Samuel Lothrop, the third, was the father of Deborah Avery 
Putnam. Li 17 15 he liad married Deborah Crow, who was born 
in 1691. He died at llu- age of eightv-two, and his wife, 
Deborah Crow I^ollirop, lived about one hundred and four vears. 
On September 21, 1738, when nineteen years of age, Deborali 
Lothrop was married t(j the Rev. I'^phraim Avery. Three years 
earlier, the "Second Church at Pomfret " desired to settle a min- 
ister. Among other candidates was E])hraim Avery, who from 
the beginning had ])leased the people, and they soon called 
him to l)e their first pastor. Tlu^v had alreadv built a meeting- 
house, and tiiey offered the young man a salarv amounting to 
about one hundred and IwentN' ixMiiuls. 

Mr. Avery was the son of Rev. John Avery and Ruth Little his 
wife, and was born in Dedham, Mass., April 22d, 1713. Rev. John 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 37 

Avery was the first minister at Truro, Massachusetts, and con- 
tinued in that pastorate for forty-four vears, until his death at the 
age of sixty-nine. He preached the ordination sermon for his son 
Ephraim. 

To the "vacant land between Pomfret and Canterbury" (now 
Broolvlyn) the Rev. Ephraim Avery brought his young wife. 
The seats in the meeting-liouse being distributed in those days 
with respect to dignity, the pastor was assigned the first seat in 
the new building, and a year later, by a vote of the church, a 
window was placed in his pew. From this pew, Sabbath after 
Sabbath, Deborah Avery listened to the earnest words of her hus- 
band, and through the week assisted him in his work. 

We have only to remember the important position occupied by 
the minister of that period to fully appreciate the high place held 
bv Rev. and Mrs. Avery in the Pomfret Church. As has been 
said of another couple, they had the " complete monopoly of all 
the material, intellectual, and spiritual life of the people, with no 
•competition." In the ministry at Brooklyn they continued for 
sixteen years ; during which time nine children were born to them, 
three daughters and six sons, one of whom died in infancy. 

The vear 1754 was an eventful one for Deborah Avery. On the 
13th of January her daughter Ruth was born. Later, a fearful 
distemper, malignant dysentery, raged with great violence in 
Brooklyn. Mr. Avery, as pastor, physician, and nurse, continued 
night and day his faithful attendance on the sick and dying. On 
the loth of October occurred the death of Deborali Avery's 
five-year-old boy, Septimus Avery. The good pastor's self- 
sacrificing life was threatened a day or so later ; he, too, was 
prostrated and on the 20th of October he fell a victim to the 
dreaded disease, leaving Deborah Avery a widow with seven 
children. 

The good man was deeplv mourned by his family and the 
church. Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, who preached his funeral 
sermon, paid a high tribute to his worth. He said, " He was calm, 
peaceful, patient, open-hearted, sociable, hospitable, cheerful, 
judicious, and very penetrating." 

Of her children who survived, tAvo sons, John and Ephraim, 
were graduated at Yale College. John, crippled by disease, 



138 



TIIK PATRON SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



became a teaclier ; Epliraini followed liis father in the ministry 
and became a successful pastor ; Elizabeth became the wife of the 
Rev. Aaron Putnam of Pomfret ; Deborah married Dr. Baker of 
Brooklyn, and Ruth married Dr. John Brewster, the first physician 
who settled on llaninton Hill. 




I'OKTKAll UF ISKAIil, I'lT.N'AM, BY TKUMBLLL. 

Not lf)ng after the death of her husband Deborah Avery became 
the second wife of John Gardiner (called Lord Gardiner), the 
fifth i)roprietor of Gardiner's Island. It is recorded of her at this 
time that "she was of an easy, agreeable disposition and beloved 
as a step-mother." She had two children by her second marriage, 
Hannah born in 1757 and Septimus born in 1759. Hannah 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



139 



became the wife of Samuel Williams of Brooklyn, Conn., and 
died without children. 

Deborah's second husband, John Gardiner, died in 1764, and 
thi-ee years later his widow, Deborah Gardiner, became the second 
wife of Israel Putnam and assumed the care of the Putnam 
family. Of Israel Putnam's seven living children, the youngest, 
Peter Schuyler, was then not cjuite three years old. 




THE rUTNAM-AVERY INN. 
(The Hotel at Brooklyn as it now is.) 

The Putnam family had long been prominent in Massachusetts ; 
and it was years before his marriage with Deborah Avery Gardiner, 
while Israel Putnam was a young and unknown farmer in Pom- 
fret, that he became famous through the wolf adventure. He had 
also won a well-earned fame through his spirited leadership and 
daring deeds in the French and Indian War. But it is chiefly during 
the closing years of her life, when she was the wife of Israel Put- 
nam, a general of the Revolution, that we are most interested in 
the history of Deborah Putnam. 

She had long been a leader in the social life of Windham 
County. She was also connected with prominent pecjple through 



14° 



THE r.VTROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



kinshii) and in many of her friendships which were strong and 
histing, and n^arriage with her established Israel Putnam's social 

position. 

Both having a large circle of friends, their hospitality was tested 
to its limit ; but their enterprise saved them from financial 
difficulties ; they moved from Putnam's home to the Avery estate in 
Brooklyn, and oi)ened tiu-ir house as an inn. Miss Larned, the 
historian, savs : "That Brooklyn tavern with Putnam for its 
landlord and Mrs. Avery (Jardiner Putnam as mistress became 
one of the most noted gathering places in Eastern Connecticut 




PUTNAM S PLOW. 

and witnessed manv a thrilling scene of the great Revolutionary 
drama." Over this house Mrs. Putnam presided with dignity, 
until her honored husband left the plow in response to the Lex- 
ington alarm. 

The history of the Revolutionarv period taken in its details 
often seems a record of defeats. It could hardly be otherwise 
considering the great disadvantages under which the American 
forces constantly labored. The soldiers, because of their brief 
terms of enlistment, could not be well drilled, and they were 
usually far (jut-numbcrcd by the enemy. Besides, envy, jealousy, 
and ill-feeling were aroused in certain qiuirters. Israel Putnam, 
as Major-CIeneral in the army, was often assailed by the tongue of 
slander and (rilicism ; vet he was alwavs true to his inborn gener- 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:\IERICAN REVOLUTION. 141 

ous nature, and his large heart was never guilty of narrowness or 
injustice. His wife knew even then tliat he had enemies ; but she 
also knew tliat he was brave and true, rendering vital service to 
his country. She encouraged him and secretlv rejoiced in the 
absolute confidence placed in liim bv Wasliington ; for Israel 
Putnam was always loyal to the American cause, and the enemy's 
offer of a bribe was no temptation to him — cheered and strength- 
ened as he was bv the courageous \\()man who stood so faithfidlv 
bv him, following him in mauA' of liis campaigns, sharing with 
him manv of the trials and privations, as well as the glories, of a 
soldier's life. 

Hers was a life of activity. Utterlv discouraging indolence, 
she and her daughters spent much of their time spinning flax for 
the soldiers' shirts. At one time they were assisted by the daugh- 
ter of a British Major, who had applied to General Putnam for 
protection. Mrs. Putnam had received her as a meniber of the 
familv and treated her with the greatest kindness. In her letters 
home the young lady, though strongly objecting to " working for 
the Yankee soldiers," expressed great admiration for her hostess. 

To better understand the anxieties of Deborah Putnam's life 
during the Revolution let us recall the services of Iier husband, 
Israel Putnam, after she became his wife. 

Putnam's mind, although untrained in the schools, was alert 
and discerning. Even when the first rumble of the Revo- 
lutionary thunder could but faintly be heard, he was certain that a 
storm was impending and began to make preparations. His 
energetic measures prevented stamped paper from being sent 
from New York into Connecticut. While the Boston Port Bill 
was in effect the people of Boston suffered from lack of pro- 
visions, but tliey were not obliged to wait long for the one hundred 
and thirty sheep which Putnam drove in from the land side 
for their relief — a gift from the Connecticut parish of Brooklyn. 
He was then " Warren's guest and evervbodvs favorite," and he 
assured the people of Boston that this flock of sheep was merely 
tvpical of the offerings which he and his neighbors were willing 
to make for their country. 

His affection for his native state is evident from his quick 
response to her every call. After tlie Lexington alarm he returned 



142 



Tin-: rATROX saints of coxxecticut chapters 



froin Boston to Connecticut for counsel with the leaders at 
Hartford and then hurried back to the defense of Massachusetts, 
arriving- in time to be present at the battle of Bunker Hill. 

His aggressive policy at last prevailed, and his plans for the 
first great engagement witii Britisli regulars were accepted by the 

council of officers. Had he 
received the cooperation which 
his energy and ability deserved, 
all his jilans would have been 
carried into execution and the 
result at Bunker Hill might 
have been a victory for the 
Americans. He was ranking 
officer on the field at Bunker 
llill, while Colonel Prescott 
was in command at Breed's 
Hill, (xeneral Ward, the Massa- 
clmsetts commander, being in 
Cambridge. When the noble 
General Warren arrived, Put- 
nam, who had a strong affection 
for him, offered him the com- 
mand of the forces at the fence, 
and Prescott oifered Warren the 
command of the redoubt, but 
both were declined, and Warren 
served simply as a volunteer. 
After having toiled all the pre- 
vious night, Cieneral Putnam's 
activity on the day of the battle 
was marvelous ; he was always 
in command and always present 
at the i)ost of greatest danger. At one time, he appeared at the 
rail fence, with balls flying about him ; at another, near the 
redoubt, tiien at the entrenchments, and he repeatedly took 
hazardous rides across the Neck, watching for the reinforcements 
which were .so much needed but did not come. At the last, when 
Prescott had ordered a retreat from Breed's Hill, Putnam shouted, 
" -Make a stand liere, boys. In God's name, fire and give them 




I'UTNAM S SADDLE. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AJ^IERICAN REVOLUTION. 



143 



-one shot more!" Then reluctantly he conducted the retreat, 
remaining with his men and encouraging them after the battle 
while certain of the subordinate officers retired at once to Cam- 
bridge. 

From the many testimonials as to his valor and worth at this 
time, two are selected. A few weeks after the battle of Bunker 
Hill, Samuel B. Webb* wrote. 
"You will find that Generals 
Washington and Lee are 
vastly prouder and think 
more highly of Putnam than 
of any man in the army, and 
he truly is the hero of the 
dav." Another distinguished 
patriot, Silas Deane, wrote 
from Philadelphia, " Put- 
nam's merit runs through 
the continent ; his fame still 
increases and every day justi- 
fies the unanimous applause 
of the Country. Let it be 
remembered that he had 
every vote of Congress for 
Major General, and his health 
has been the second or third 
at almost all our tables in 
this city." 

hi June, 1775, Avhen ap- 
pointments for the Conti- 
nental army were made. 

Congress passed by at least five other generals and raised 
Putnam to the rank of Major-General ; his appointment, of 
the five made at this time, being the only one which was 
unanimous and promptly conferred ; the commissions of four 
other generals being for a time withheld. 

During the summer of '75 and the following winter Putnam's 
headquarters were in Cambridge at the home of Ralph luTiian (a 

* Samuel B. Webb was first one of Putnam's aides, and afterwards Washing- 
Ion's aide with the title of General. 




< Ictieral ,de^ 

(From a French Frint.) 



144 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

torv who had tied to Boston), <and Putnam's family were living 
with hini at the Inman house. The selectmen of Cambridge, who 
once dared to interfere with Mrs. Putnam's rides in the 
Inman coacli, Avere tauglit a lesson by General Putnam which 
they did not soon forget, and Mrs. Putnam was not a second 
time forced to walk back to her husband's headquarters at 
the Inman house. (Jeneral and .Mrs. Washington were also in 
Cambridge during the summer and winter of '75 and '76, and 
frequent visits were interchanged between tliese two prominent 
families. 

There were several military movements in which Putnam had 
taken an effective and conspicuous part before he took possession 
of Boston, in tlie name of the thirteen colonies, on its evacuation 
bv the British. His next command was at New York. In the 
summer of '76, the brave commander, Gen. Nathaniel Greene, was 
stationed on Long Island ; three days before the battle he 
was too ill even to be consulted, and Cieneral Putnam, without 
previous knowledge of the position, was transferred to the com- 
mand of Long Island. Only defeat could be expected wdien five 
tliousand untrained though brave colonists met twenty thousand 
British veterans. Governcu" Clinton, Chief Justice Marshall, and 
others, long ago made plain that, under the circumstances, success 
for the American ((jloiues at the battle of Long Island would 
iiave been impossible ; and all historians acknowledge that the 
strength of Putnam's resistance was remarkable and that the retreat 
was conducted in a masterly manner, John Fiske referring to it as 
"one of the most brilliant incidents in Washington's career." 

A part of Putnam's force won special distinction at Harlem 
Heiglits, where, as General Greene said, "General Putnam behaved 
nobly." He also took conspicuous part at Chatterton Hill, at 
Fort Washington, and at Princet<jn. In May, 1777, he was 
l)laced in command at the Highlands of the Hudson, and from 
Peekskill he sent the following characteristic letter in reply 
to Clinton's haughty message demanding the immediate ixstora- 
ti()n of Kdnuind Palmer. 

Hkadqu.vr'i'krs, August 7, 1777. 

Kdmund Palmer, an oflicer in the enemy's service, was taken as 
a s[)y, lurking within our lines. He has been tried as a spy, con- 
demned as a spy, and shall be executed as a spy, and the flag is 

ordered to depart immediatelv. t t-. 

p v; IT 1' 1-11 .1 Israel Putnam. 

r. ^. — lie has accordmglv been executed. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:\IERICAX REVOLUTION. 



145 



The selection of the heights of West Point for a fortification for 
the American forces displayed Putnam's acuteness, and his device 
for barring the ascent of British sliips up the Hudson by means of 
a heavy iron chain and a boom stretched across the river is an 
example of his ingenuity. 




(The house where the old soldier " fought his last battle " and " slept his last sleep.") 



Deborah Putnam had accompanied her husband on this cam- 
paign, in which there was much to fill her with gladness and pride 
and many events to sadden her. Perhaps the greatest sacrifice 
which she made for her coiuitrv was the life of her own promising- 
young son, Septimus Gardiner, who was General Putnam's aide. 
She did not long survive her patriot son. On the 14th of 
October, 1777, Deborah Putnam died, and was buried (probably) 
in Col. Beverly Robinson's family vault at the Highlands of the 
Hudson in the Episcopal Church Cemeterv. In a letter written 
soon after to General Washington concerning militarv affairs on 
the Hudson, General Putnam wrote in conclusion : '' I have the 



146 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



unhappiness to inform you that Mrs. Putnam, after a long and 
tedious illness, departed this life last Tuesday night." The fol- 
lowing are extracts from General Washington's re]:)ly written in 
the midst of great cares and jierplexities, yet the Commander-in- 
Chief does not pass by the grief of his trusted General. 




EQUESTRIAN MONUMENT TO ISKAEI, PUTNAM IN IJROOKLVN. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 47 

Camp near Philadelphia, October 19, 1777. 

To Majoy-Gciieral Put 11a 111 : 

Your favor of the i6th I received yesterday morning and was 
much obliged for the interesting contents. The defeat of General 
Burgoyne is a most important event and, as such, must afford the 

highest satisfaction to every well affected American I am 

extremely sorry for the death of Mrs. Putnam and sympathize 
with you upon the occasion. Remembering that all must die, and 
that she lived to an honorable age, I hope you bear the misfortune 
wnth that fortitude and complacency of mind that becomes a man 
and a Christian. 

I am dear sir, with great pleasure, yours, 

George Washington. 

We will not attempt to give further details of General Putnam's 
adventurous career after his wife's death, and will only refer to his 
command in the western part of Connecticut ; his ride down 
the steep steps of Horse Neck ; his furlough, followed bv paralv- 
sis as he was returning to camp ; and his consequent retirement 
for the remainder of his davs. 

He was cheered by admiring and devoted friends ; bv letters 
from his beloved Commander-in-Chief, assuring him that " the 
name of Putnam was not forgotten "; andbv the knowledge of the 
glorious triumph of the cause he loved. In the words of Wash- 
ington, " Putnam had a right to parcicipate in that event, great as 
it is in itself and glorious as it probably will be in its conse- 
quences." 

When the end came the brave soldier passed to his rest, "calm, 
resigned, and full of cheerful hope." The epitaph on his tomb- 
stone was written by one of the foremost scholars of the day, the 
first President Dwight of Yale College. It was re-engraved on 
the monument which, in 1S88, was erected in Brooklyn by a grate- 
ful people to take the place of his battered tombstone.* The 
inscription is : — • 

* The original tombstone is now a treasured relic (under glass) in the State 
Capitol at Hartford. See illustration, page 135. 



14S Till' PATRON SAIXTS OF CONXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Sacred be this monument to the memory of 

IsKAKi. Putnam, Es(juikk, 

Senior Major-Cicneral in the armies of the United States of America, 

who was born at Salem, in the province of Massachusetts, 

on tlie 7th day of January, A.D. 1718, 

and died on the iQtli of May, A.D. 1790. 

Passenger 

if thou art a soldier 

drop a tear over the dust of a Hero 

wlio ever attentive 

to the lives and happiness of his men, 

dared to lead 

where any dared to follow. 

If a patriot 

remember the distinguished and gallant 

service rendered thy country 

by the Patriot who sleeps beneath this Marble ; 

if thou art honest, generous and worthy, render 

a cheerful tribute of respect to a man 

whose generosity was singular, 

whose honesty was proverbial ; 

who raised himself to universal esteem 

and offices of eminent distinction 

bv personal worth and a useful life. 

Mrs. Julia M. A/idreivs. 



The Authorities used in preparing this paper were : — 
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. 
Increase N. Tarbox's Life of Israel Putnam. 
American Archives, Fourth Series, Vols. II-IIl. 
Force's Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. II. 
Letters of Washington and John Adams. 
Life and Writings of Washington. 
Connecticut Historical Collections. Vol. I. 
Address of Hon. Henry L. Deming, 1859. 
Address of Hon. John Lowell, 181S. 
New England Magazine, October, 1897. 
Connecticut Magazine, INIay, 1899. 



MARY SILLIMAN 

WIFE OF 

GOLD SELLECK SILLIMAN 

Urisit-Tilit'i-Geiu'ral Continental Arniv 



MARY SILLIMAN CHAPTER 
BRIDGEPORT 




MARY SII.I.IMAN. 
(Krom a Portrait by Mdultlirop of Xew Haven.) 



MARY SILLIMAN 




URIXG the years when the mother country was 
encroaching iijjon tlie rights of tlie coh^nists, when 
murmurs of discontent were increasing everywhere, 
and tlie love of civil liberty was growing stronger with 
every act of oppression, a powerful influence was developing in 
American homes established amid the privations and dangers 
attending the growth of settlements in a new world. So potent 
had this influence become that the destinies of a nation were 
largely in its control — the influence of the patriot women of 
America whose unfailing courage and self-denial are more appre- 
ciated as research reveals to us their character. 

The names of many women who contributed to the success of the 
Revolutionary cause have been forgotten, their deeds having been 
known only to their contemporaries, but Connecticut is fortunate 
in possessing large and definite knowledge of many loyal women, 
the records of whose lives add much to the history of the 
Revolutionary period, and whose names have been given in grati- 
tude and reverence to the various chapters of a society formed for 
the " fostering of true patriotism and love of country." 

Among these honored names, that of Mary Silliman is widely 
known. Born in 1736 she spent her childhood and youth in 
North Stonington, Conn., whose settlers in the early history of 
Connecticut had been especially trained in habits of watchfulness 
and self-defense, almost all the able-bodied men having been 
engaged in the early Indian wars. But during Mary Silliman's 
childhood security and peace reigned in the homes of these sub- 
stantial farmers, given to the simplicity and hospitality of colonial 
days. The sweet serenity that characterized the life of Mary 
Silliman received its first impulse during this peaceful period. 



152 THE PATRON SAIXTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

She was the eldest daughter of the Rev. Joseph Fish, a graduate 
of Harvard College and the pastor of the North Stonington 
Church for nearly fifty years; "a man of clear, discriminating 
mind, an excellent preacher and an affectionate pastor," who, in 
spite of other calls to inviting fields, never forsook his little flock. 
Educated in the refined atmosphere of a clergyman's home, the 
daughters acquired the polite address, the finished manners, and 
the elevated stvle both in writing and conversation that were 
marked features of a colonial minister's family. 

In after years her distinguished son said of her : " I do not 
remember to have seen a finer example of dignity and self-respect, 
combining a graceful courtesy with the charms of a cheerful 
temper and a cultivated mind, which made her society acceptable 
in the most polished circles."^'' 

While honoring the character of Mary Silliman, the members of 
the Bridgeport Chapter would also ascribe honor to her ancestors 
whose influence shaped her life. Her mother, Rebecca Peabody, 
who died in 17S3 at the Silliman Homestead on Holland Hill, was 
fourteen years old when Jwr grandmother, Elizabeth Alden, 
daughter of John Alden and Piiscilla Mullens, died. Therefore 
Mary Silliman learned the story of the Mayflower from one to 
whom it had been told by a daughter of the very people who 
landed on Plymouth Rock. 1'hus directlv did the maiden learn 
of their high resolves and their willing sacrifices and, no doubt, 
she often listened with raj^t attention to the charming story of 
the love-making of John and Priscilla which was beautifully 
woven into verse a century later by another descendant. 

On the sixteenth of November, 1758, this favored daughter, then 
in lu-r twenty-second year, was given in marriage by her father to 
the Rev. John Noyes. Very charming she must have looked on 
her wedding day in the gown of red and white brocade ; a piece of 
which is still treasured by a great-granddaughterf wlio also has 
in her possession one of a set of a dozen chairs which were part 
of the wedding outfit, the seats of which were originally worked 
in figures illustrating tiie history of Josei)h and his brethren. 

*Lifc of Ik-njamin Silliman, by Professor Fisher of Yale College. 
+ .Miss Henrietta W. ilul)l)arcl. 




r; 



^^^a^F^^f^^ 




SAMPLE OF MARY SILLIMAN S WEDDING GOWN. 



(From a water color sketch by Martha Edwards Beach.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



153 



Mr. Noyes was the son of the Rev. Joseph Noyes, pastor of the 
First Church in New Haven, and grandson of the first pastor of 
the Stonington Church. The intimacy tliat resulted so happily 
probablv began in childhood davs, for Stonington had been the 




MARY SILI.IMAN CHAIR. 



(Belonging to the wedding oullit of Mrs. Mary l>"isli Noyes, afterwards the wife of Gen. Gold 
Selleck Silliman. By permission of Miss Henrietta W. Hubbard.) 



home of this branch of the Noyes familv from the first days of its 
settlement — staunch supporters, all of them, of civil and religious 
liberty and of higher education. Jolin Noyes had been educated 
for the ministry, but was handicapped in his work by failing 



154 THE PATROX SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

healtli. "Greatly lamented," a record tells us, he died in 1767, 
leavini^ his widow with three sons. Resolutely she took up the 
care of their education, the thoroughness of which brought such 
ample reward. All three sons grew to honorable manhood and 
two of the three, John and James, became faithful ministers 
of the Gospel. 

In addition to the exceptional educational advantages which 
New Haven afforded her children, was the congenial companion- 
ship of the cultured people about her which Mrs. Noyes no doubt 
enjoved, for we learn that she remained there several years before 
returning to her father's home in Stonington. But she had won the 
esteem of one who soon followed her, Col. Gold Selleck Silliman, 
whose first wife, ^Martha Davenport, died August ist, 1774, leaving 
one child, a son, William, then in his nineteenth year. Thus after 
eight years of widowhood and much "prayerful consideration" 
on Mav 21st, 1775, at the age of thirty-nine, Mrs. Mary Fish 
Noyes, again wearing the " red and white brocade," w^as married 
by her father to Colonel Silliman. 

The Sillimans of Fairfield had built their homes tw^o miles from 
the town of Fairfield, upon a beautiful height overlooking Long 
Island Sound which they called Holland Hill, in commemoration 
of their emigration from Holland ; though they were only sojourn- 
ers in Holland, having gone there at the time of the Reformation 
from Tuscany, where they bore the name of Sillivia/idi* 

Ebenezer Silliman, the father of Colonel Silliman, was a judge 
of the Superior Court of the Colony and a member of the Gov- 
ernor's Council. His own home, which he inherited from his 
father, is still standing in good repair, and, if it had not passed 
into other hands, might have sheltered at least eight generations 
of the family. " I have said ye are gods, but ye shall die like 
men," is the closing sentence of the inscription on the stone in 
llie l-'airlield burying ground which enumerates his high offices 
and virtues. He was the proprietor of large landed estates, and 
the education and high standing of the family made its members 
leaders in all social and public affairs. 

Constant intercourse kejn the people of Fairfield in touch with 
tile life of Cambridge and Hoston, and a generous hospitality 

*Lifc of Bcnjumin Silliman. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A^IERICAN REVOLUTION. 



155 



brought together the intelligent men of the community. Beau- 
tiful mansions had taken the place of the rude houses of earlier 
times, and affluence and prosperity abounded. 

The superior qualifications of the new mistress at the home of 
General Silliman placed her at once in sympathy with the best life 
of the locality, and made her a welcome addition to an elegant 
society, among the chief attractions of which were the beautiful 




HOUSE ON HOLLAND HEIGHTS IN WHICH GEN. GOLD SELLECK SILLIMAN WAS BORN. 



Mrs. Thaddeus Burr and her charming guest, Miss Dorothy 
Ouincy, who in September of the same year (1775) was married 
to the Hon. John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. 
The stirring scenes of the Revolution had begun. The story of 
the carnage at Lexington had been repeated at every fireside. 
Fairfield ncnv became a center of military activity. The ferment 
and agitation of political strife brought to Mrs. Silliman new 
experiences and new trials, as she wrote in her journal kept 
during these eventful vears at Holland Hill — a journal which 
shows not onlv her own resourceful nature, but which is 



iq6 



THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



\ 



I 






J4 ;^'^K5 





DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. J 57 

extremely interesting as a record of the exciting events of tliat 
troublous time.* 

General Silliman had chosen the profession of law and had 
become prosecuting attorney for the county, but being also inter- 
ested in militarv affairs he was made a Colonel of cavalry in the local 
militia (May, '75), then Brigadier-General (June, '76), and was 
charged with superintending the defense of the southwestern 
frontier of Connecticut, which, because of its close proximity to 
Long Island and New Y<u-k, was a post requiring much vigilance 
and efficiency. In March, 1776, he took command of his regiment. 
Mrs. Silliman records his departure with that of "our dutiful 
son William" in most affectionate terms, at the same time breatli- 
ing a prayer for their safety and guidance. With true heroism 
she permitted no word of fear or hesitation to escape her lips, 
although it was a time Avhen lives and fortunes were heldbv sliglu 
tenure and when duty called for great sacrilices. 

During the long periods of separation from her husband she 
managed her domestic affairs with calmness and firmness ; finding 
in her own elevated soul refuge in the hours of anxiety and 
suspense and, through the strength thus gained, proving ever an 
inspiration and encouragement to her husband in the darkest 
hours of their country's need. She recounts the " love of a 
merciful God" who kept her loved sons in safety, "facing an 
unnatural enemy, a mighty host with hostile intentions ; " and a 
glimpse into the serene and beautiful home life is given in the 
" strength and confidence " she gained on one particular occasion 
as they read together the encouraging words of the one hundred 
and eleventh Psalm. 

After the General's narrow escape from capture in the retreat 
which followed the battle of Long Island, his conimand being the 
rear guard, she rejoiced that " not a hair of his head had been 
hui't," and the joy in her heart burst forth into a song of thank- 
fulness after the battle of White Plains, that though God called 
him into the conflict on that "memorable 28tli of October, he 
covered his head on that dreadful day, and amidst the shower of 

*The original diary is now in the possession of a granddaughter, Mrs. James 
D. Dana of New Haven. 



IvS TIIK I'ATKOX SAIXTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 



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DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 159 

rattling bullets, not one so much as touched his garments." In 
the following December, however, when the General was enjoying 
a short visit with his family and the careful wife was repairing 
the worn coat, there was reason for even greater rejoicing, for a 
" spent ball " was found in the lining, a " ragged ball that might 
not be easilv extracted from the flesh of him who was so unhappy 
as to receive it." 

Under the date of October 26th, 1777, the following record is 
fovmd : "Our dear son Gold Selleck was born on Sabbath 
morning." Two weeks after this event Madam Silliman was 
again made happy by a visit from her husband. Full indeed 
must the mother's heart and hands have been at this time 
with the management of the estate, the control of the servants, 
tiie needs of five boys to satisfy, and the honor and safety of 
her husband a constant anxiety. With wifely pride in the 
confidence placed in her husband by the Commander-in-Chief, 
and in the "marked courtesy" received from him, was mingled 
great anxiety for General Sillimari's personal safety, even in the 
seclusion of his own home which in 1779 was made his head- 
quarters ; his attention at this time being directed more particu- 
larly to the coast in the vicinity of Fairfield. 

The splendid resistance which he had made in conjunction with 
Generals Wooster and Arnold against the British in tlieir efforts 
to destroy the military stores at Danbury in 1777, and his success- 
ful harassing of the enemv on their return to their boats at Compo, 
marked him by the British leaders as a most dangerous man to be 
at large. With the British in possession of Long Island, and 
bands of Tories along the coast, plans were easily made for his 
capture and successful Iv carried out bv a party sent from New 
York by Sir Henry Clinton on the first of May, 1779. 

In vivid terms Mrs. Silliman tells the story of the attack at mid- 
night upon her home, of her terror as the great rocks were hurled 
against the doors to burst them open; of how she lay quaking 
with fear with her babe beside her, as she watched in the bright 
moonlight her husband trying to fire upon the invaders from the 
window ; of their dash through another window into the house, 
"taking sash and all" ; of their frightful appearance when, with 
bayonets fixed, they followed him into her bedroom ; of her lius- 



[6o 



THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



band's quiet remonstrance once and again against the intrusion, 
and of his tact in restraining to a degree their desire to plunder 
by expressing the hope that he was in the "hands of gentlemen." 




TMK noMK OK MUS. MARY SII.LIMAN, HOLLAND HILL. 



( In which Gen. Gold Selleck Sillinian was captnrcil on the night of Mav 6, 1779, by a party 
despatchcil in lioats by Sir Henry Clinton.) 

A moment having been reluctantly granted the General in which 
to take leave of his wife, he quickly slipped a bundle of valuable 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. l6l 

papers under a table cover, and concealed the silver communion 
service of the church, of which he was a deacon. He overlooked 
"a pair of pistols inlaid with silver, and an elegant sword," 
which the leader of the marauders, a carpenter who had worked 
for the Sillimans, quickly seized and "flourished in a most reck- 
less manner." We do not read that any outcry from Mrs. Silli- 
man added to the distressing circumstances. On the contrary, it 
is recorded that the farewells were said with "great seeming 
fortitude and composure." The despairing wife saw her husband 
hurried off by a merciless foe to a fate perhaps worse than death. 
Hastening to the room occupied by the General's son William, 
Mrs. Silliman's terror was greatly increased to find that he, too, 
was gone. 

Then followed three weeks of anxiety and cruel suspense, a 
time of "constant alarm, when, like the timorous roe," she writes, 
"I started at every sound." Afterwards, from the General's place 
of confinement at Flatbush, letters were permitted, after close 
inspection, to pass back and forth. Major William Silliman, 
having been released on parole, turned his attention to securing 
for Mrs. Silliman an asylum in case of an invasion of the town 
of Fairfield. Fairfield had by this time become a "hot-bed of 
resistance," and an invasion had long been dreaded — an event 
which, with a hostile fleet passing to and fro in the Sound, 
became every day more certain. 

On the seventh of Julv Marv vSilliman, from the roof of her home, 
saw the enemy land and, with a heavy heart, she realized that 
the time had come for the "valiant to fight and the feeble to fiee." 
Her most valuable articles had already been carefully packed 
and made ready for sudden departure, and soon she was hastening 
on her way to the care and protec- 

tion of her friend, Eliakim Beach, ^/ / '.,^ ^ ^, /! 
in irumbull, accompanied by her ^-^ 

little son, Selleck, whose merry signature of eliakim beach. 
mimicrv of the boom of the cannon 

— constantly growing heavier — was in striking contrast to the 
doleful sound as it fell upon her ears. She called it a "dreadful 
night," and truly it must have been. From her refuge she could 
see the light of the burning town, and could imagine the bru- 
II 



l62 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




BENJAMIN Sll.LIMAN, M.D., LL.D.'"' 

(Son of Mary Silliinan.) 

Professor of Clieiuistry, Geolo<ry and Mineralogy in Vale College. 



* The Mary Silliman Chapter is indebted to the Hon. Benjamin Silliman for 
tlie ii\{i of a fine steel engraving of the elder Professor Silliman from which the 
cm illustrating this article is made. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REXOLUTION. 163 

talities of the British, and the terror and misery of the inhabitants 
in their vain endeavor to pr(jtect themselves and tlieir property. 
It was onlv because the invaders did not dare to venture where 
they might be exposed to attacks from behind stone fences and 
shrubberv, that the home of so preeminent a rebel as General 
Silliman was spared. It served, therefore, as a refuge for the 






HOMIi OF ELIAKIM Bi:.A.CH IN TRUMBULL. 
(From a meniDry sketch contributed by A. H. Fairchild, Esq.) 

homeless and wounded, and when on .Saturday Mrs. Silliman 
returned for a short visit she found the house full of the dis- 
tressed inhabitants. 

One month later, on x\ugust Stli, before the separated and dis- 
tracted families had recovered from the first shock of the disaster, 
and while Mrs. Silliman was still with her friends in Trumbull, 
another son was born, who became the distingiuslied scientist Prof. 
Benjamin Silliman of Yale College. Of his birth at such a trying 
time he afterwards wrote : "My mother's cheerful courage con- 
tributed to sustain her; and I ought to be (I trust I am) grateful 



164 



THE PATRON' SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



to my noble mother and to my gracious God, that the midnight 
surprise, the horror of ruffians armed for aggression, and the loss 




\ , \ 







r^ ■ O r 

Ajto ri.r-1 r.y at L a iv 
J u s T I c r II f TH 1: r' £ A e fe; 

mmmt^Mw ^?/%MMmA k^tt'lvLm/k 

!/«i*./i HG Of SCR ARO ro TH rsr; 
.^1' /ir-4D QTH'CR pi-'euc 0rr^cg: 

^ AM D I ^i p R I vvvr r 1. ? rT' s '/fOi-'i 
,£><£HPtAf?y OHISISTIAN 

TOMBSTONK OF GKNERAI, COI.D SKLLECK SlI.l.lMAX. 
(From a pen ami ink sl<ctcli by Manlia I'.dwarOs Heacli.) 

of her liusband, as perhaps she might fear, bv llie hands of 
assassins, had not prevented my life, or entailed upon it })hysical, 
mental, or moral infirmities." 





DAUGPITERS OF THE A:MERICAN REVOLUTION. 



165 



Uncertainty as to the ultimate fate of her beloved husband 
sharpened our heroine's wits, and as soon as circumstances would 
permit, she made plans for his release by exchange of prisoners. 
But the Americans held no officer of equal rank who could be 
exchanged for General Silliman. After investigation and corre- 
spondence, and with the assistance of Governor Trumbull (who 
interested himself to the utmost, not only because of personal 




BEACH RELICS. 
(Chair, decanters, flip-glass and pewter platter owned by Eliakim Beach,) 

friendship but also on account of the loss of so faithful an officer 
as General Silliman) it was decided to kidnap Judge Thomas 
Jones of the Supreme Court of Ncav York, a noted Loyalist, who 
lived in a " castle"-like mansion at Fort Nick on the north side of 
Hempstead plain. It was not until November that Mrs. Silli- 
man's plans were perfected. Captains Hawley, Lockwood and 
Jones, and Lieutenants Jackson and Bishop, with a sufficient 
number of assistants to man a whale boat, volunteered their 
services, and on the fourth of the month started on their danger- 
ous expedition. Would the lives of these brave men be sacrificed 



i66 



THE PATROX SAIXTS OF COXNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




sJ^^'^JJIP*-""' 




I.OWnoV AND POIMKAII' OF MRS. IIAKKIKT TIUMKLLL SILLIMAN, 
Wifu i)f the first Professor Silliman and d;ui-hlcr of the second Governor 'I"ruinl>i; 
iPorl.iiit iKiintcd by Col. John TrnniljuU, owned bv l^rof. Arthur W. \\ri"ht.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 67 

in their friendly efforts? Would it be possible with the watchful- 
ness of the enemy and the treachery of the Tories to get posses- 
sion of one so well guarded ? Slie could only await patiently and 
prayerfully the result. 

They landed on the opposite shore fifty-two miles from the home 
of Judge Jones and, after carefully concealing their boats, 
they cautiously made their way by obscure paths until they finally 
reached the pretentious home of the Judge at nine o'clock Saturday 
eyening, Nov. 6th. The revelry and gaiety within diverted the 
attention of the inmates from the approach of the adventurers. 
Captain Hawley dashed in the panel of a door, seized Judge Jones 
and a young gentleman named Hewlett who were standing in an 
entry apart from the guests, threatened the lives of the captives if 
any outcry was made, and was well on his way before an alarm had 
been given. Fifty miles were covered that night. The next day 
was spent in evading the enemy's light horse. In the evening of 
Nov. 8th the boats were reached and, with two more prisoners, 
six of their own men having been captured by the enemy's light 
horse, the party very soon reembarked at Newfield (now Bridge- 
port). 

As soon as Mrs. Silliman heard of the arrival of the captured 
Judge, she sent him an invitation to take breakfast with her, 
which, under guard, he was allowed to accept. After the intro- 
ductions were over Mrs. Silliman, with characteristic kindness of 
heart, graciously assured him that everything in her power should 
be done for his comfort and that, though the fortunes of war had 
brought him to her house under disagreeable circumstances, she 
could well sympathize with him and his family. The choicest 
viands obtainable were placed before him, and from the members 
of her family he received courteous attention, but to the good 
woman's disappointment she found hiiu "insensible and void 
of complaisance and a sullen discontent sat on his brow." 
He was soon sent to Middletown for greater security and Mr. 
Hewlett, who had been released on parole by Captain Hawley, 
was exchanged for the General's son, William. 

After Mr. Hewlett's return to his home Mrs. Silliman received 
from Mrs. Jones a "very genteel billet" "expressing great thank- 
fulness for her politeness to dear Mr. Jones and begging her to 
accept as a mark of her appreciation a pound of green tea ! " In 



1 68 THE TATROX SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

*• hope deferred " the long dreary months passed, and spring- 
was again approaching before the terms of an exchange were 
•"arranged" to suit both sides. 

On a bright morning in May, 1780, Mrs. Silliman saw with 
rejoicing heart the vessel bearing Judge Jones bound out of the 
liarbor with a "fair wind," which in two or three days would 
return bringing General Silliman. But the General was already 
well on his way, liaving left Flatbush in advance of Judge Jones' 
tleparture. The two vessels met, and the exchange was made 
after the principals had breakfasted off the "fine turkey" which 
Mrs. Silliman had provided. At ten o'clock of the same morning, 
lo the astonishment of the waiting ones in Fairfield, the safe 
arrival of General Silliman was announced by the signals agreed 
upon — the flving of the two flags and the firing of cannon at the 
Fort at Black Rock, the signals being easily seen and Jieard at 
Holland Hill. 

The General's return was welcomed with great demonstrations 
of joy by the friends wlio had cjuickly assembled. On the porch 
of his home were gathered to receive him the wife whose noble 
exertions had been so successful ; little Selleck, two and a half 
years old, "who never forgot his first sight of the unknown 
gentleman in his military garb;" "William, the only son of a 
departed mother; the three Xoyes boys, sons of a departed 
father," and last of all "Benjamin, the little stranger," who, after 
fourscore years, in alluding to the circumstance, could onlv thank 
(rod for the signal mercies of which he was then unconscious.'* 

At last the war ended and peace smiled upon a new nation. 
After the death of ^^Irs. Silliman's father, which occurred in 
Stonington in May, 1781, her mother, the venerable Mrs. Fish, 
removed to Holland Hill, where she remained until her death in 
17S3, surrounded by the love and consideration of her grandchil- 
dren. Seven years later at " sunsetting " July 21st, 1790, after 
fervent prayer for his dear ones and strong expressions of faith 
in a glorious resurrection, General Silliman was called to his 
reward. 

I his bereavement brought upon the sorrowing widow a "world 
of trouble." The law business ol her husband had been broken up 

* Connecticut Journal, Nov. 1779. Dwiplu's Travels, Vol. 3. Diarv of Mrs. 
Silliman. Life of Benjamin Silliman. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AIMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



169 



by the war, his farm neglected. "-As he was not in the Continental 
line nor in active service at the time of his capture, he was never 
re-imbursed for the serious losses and expenses incident to his 
long imprisonment, and his life ended before he had extricated his 
affairs from embarrassment."* With two sons to educate and a 
family of servants to provide for, careful management was neces- 




GEXKKAl. 



(The "General Silliman Chair" was purchased at the auction of the General's personal 
property after his death by Ebenezer Burr of Fairiield, father of Ebenezer Burr of Fairfield, and 
grandfather of Ebenezer Burr of Bridgeport, the present owner.) 

sary ; but the earnest injunction of the dying husband to "take 
good care of the dear children " was most faithfully fulfilled, 
guided as she was by the divine impulse for which she daily 
prayed. 

With the assistance of their pastor, the Rev. Andrew Eliot, 
Selleck and Benjamin were prepared for college, Benjamin enter- 
ing at the age of thirteen. With generations of cultured ancestry 
and associations from infancy the most refined, it is not to 

*Life of Benjamin Silliman. 



170 THl-: PATRON SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

be wondered at that these loving and dutiful sons, whose devotion 
to each ether covered more than fourscore years, were ever a 
consolation and delight to the careful mother, who watched with 
the keenest interest the advancement made from year to year in 
their useful and honorable lives. 

Not long ago at the unveiling and presentation to the New 
England Society of Brooklyn of a marble bust of the veteran 
lawver, the lion. Benjamin D. Sillinian, a son of the elder of these 
two brothers, Dr. Ricliard S. Storrs delivered the address of the 
evening. He attributed their greatness and goodness to the fact 
that their blood was "rich with the Bible, the Westminster 
catechism, and AV'alts's hvmns." He might also have shown that 
the germs of rare virtues had been implanted by their excellent 
mother, for whom they both ever expressed feelings of the most 
profound veneration and affection. '' Blessed mother," wrote 
Prof. Benjamin Silliman after her death, "whatever I have of 
good in me, I owe, under God, mainlv to her." ^Irs. Hubbard, a 
daughter of Professor Silliman, writing after her father's death of 
his reverent love for his mother, said "till the last of his life, I 
never knew him to pass the spot where her body lay without 
raising his hat and n-maining uncovered until he left the place." 

It was during the ccjllege days of her two sons (perhaps in 
1794-5) that a jKjrtrait of Mrs. Silliman, who was then fifty-eight 
years old, was painted by Moulthrop of New Haven, an artist 
who was "successful in getting striking likenesses."* Of this 
]iortrait Professor Silliman said : " It always fills me with pleasure 
to look upon the benignant face that smiles uixni us from the 
walls of the drawing room of our house. It is the veritable 
mother of my youth." "At the lime when the portrait was 
painted, the cap was probably worn on important occasions only, 
as when she received her sons on tlieir visits from college. "f Of 
Crenenil Silliman there is no portrait extant, but among General 

*A copy of tliis portrait was presented to the Mary Silliman Chapter soon 
after its orjianization by the lion. Benjamin Silliman, now dean of the New 
York bar and Yale's oldest living gradnate. The portrait came to Mr. Silliman 
from his cousin. Mr. Joseph V. Xoyes of Wallingford, to whom it had been 
given by Professor Silliman, who retained for himself a finished copy made by 
<>erard Flagg. 

KMiss Iluiibard. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION'. 



171 



Silliman's descendants there is a belief that tlie Hon. Benjamin D. 
Silliman of Brooklyn resembles him in appearance. 

In imagination we have seen Marv Silliman in the bloom of 
youth, the great mystery of life unfolding before her, standing 
with consecrated soul beside the one whose joys and sorrows 




i"'''h t Imsi^mmMfJbjf^ 

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andcdusec) /lertniou^fi li leToexfiibif 

RT) example oidi%t\vgutshee.xeellence 

Uiilne va]'/oub soc la/ reld-'tions. 

GhristwA?, fier hope /'n life JindiheT 



n the pros pec 



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4^-'^M 



TOMBSTONE OF MARY SILLIMAN DICKENSON IN WALLINGFORD. 

she had pledged herself to share. Later, when time and experi- 
ence had matured and heightened her charms of mind and heart, 
we have followed her through the eventful years of her union 
with one of Connecticut's distinguished sons and through a second 
widowhood. Again at sixty-nine years of age, when sorrow and 
care had left their ennobling mark, this remarkable woman 



172 THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

\v;is sought a third time in marriage In 1804 she became the 
wife of Dr. |(jlin Dickenson of Middletown, Conn., who died in 
181 1. Tliereafter she lived principally in Wallingford, in the 
family of her son, Rev. Joseph \oyes, surrounded by children 
and grandchildren to whom "she was ever an angel of love," 
and rejoicing in the knowledge that upon not one of her blood 
rested anv moral stain. Among other witnesses to her loyal and 
affectionate nature is her long-continued correspondence with the 
cherished friends of her girlhood home in Stonington. 

At the age of seventy-eight an attack of pneumonia prostrated 
her, from which she never f;dly recovered. In June, 1818, she 
visited her son Rev. John Noyes in Newfield (Bridgeport), and 
spent a few days in New Haven. On her return to Wallingford 
she grew more feeble and continued to decline until July 2d, 
when she passed gently into eternal life, and on the fourth of July 
she was laid to rest in the cemetery in Wallingford. A head- 
stone marks her burial place in Wallingford, and a monument 
was erected to her memory in Stonington ; a copy of the inscrip- 
tion on tlie nionunient is given herewith : 

" M.\RV, daughter of Rev. Joseph and Rebecca Fish, 
wife of Rev. Joseph Noyes, 175S ; Gen. Gold S. 
Silliman, 1775 ; Dr. 1. Dickenson, 1804 ; died at 
Wallinjrford, Conn., July 2, i8i8, aged S3. Cheer- 
ful pict\' gracetl her life and sustained her in death." 

The custom is observed by tiie Bridgeport Chapter of placing 
on Mary Silliman's grave each Memorial Day a wreath of flowers 
as a symbol of the fragrance of this sincere Christian life 
wliich has shed its sweetness along successive generations. For 
tile Daugliters of the American Revolution there can be no 
liner example of patriotic womanliood than that of Mary Silliman. 
Of her and her noble husnand, (ren. Gold Selleck Silliman, it may 
be said, as of many oilier devoted sons and daughters of Con- 
necticut 

" Living, they laid tog<-tlur the first stones of the nation, 
-And dead, they build it yet." 

Martha Edwards Beach. 



MARTHA PITKIN WOLCOTT 

REPRESENTED BY HER GRANDSONS 

OLIVER WOLCOTT 

SVIajor-Gonn-al CoiilinciiLiI ^^niiv 
Sii^iier Declaration of luclcpeudciiri' 

ERASTUS WOLCOTT 

Uri gadicr-Geiieral Coiinccticiif {AUIitia 
Member Comnil of Safe/r 



MARTHA PITKIN WOLCOTT CHAPTER 
EAST HARTFORD AND SOUTH WINDSOR 




MAJOK-caCNERAI, OI.IVKR WOI.COTT. 

(".randson of Martha Pitkin Wolcott. 

(Kroin a painting by Earle, 17S2.) 



MARTHA PITKIN WOLCOTT 




[IE East Hartford and South Windsor Chapter of the 
Daugliters of the American Revolution bears the name 
of Martha Pitkin Wolcott. Although the useful life 
of Martha Pitlvin Wolcott ended many years before 
the Revolutionary War, the ability, patriotism, and prominence 
of her family in the early history of Connecticut, and the distin- 
guished services of her descendants in the Revolution, render her 
name a most suitable one with which to honor the chapter 
organized to carry on the work of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution in the old towns of East Hartford and South Wind- 
sor, in both of which she lived. 

William Pitkin, the first of the name in this country, came to 
Hartford in 1659, and in the following A'ear began teachiiig school. 
In 1664 he was appointed attorney for the Colony. He was a 
member of the General Court for many years and a prominent 
and influential man. In 1661 he bought land on the east side of 
the Connecticut River, and in the same year his sister Martha 
came to visit her brother in the wilderness in the hope of per- 
suading him to return with her to England. Her brother Roger 
was an officer in the Royal Army, and it is said that, when Martha 
Pitkin found her scholarly brotlier William laboring like a servant 
on his plantation, she exclaimed : '' I left one brother serving liis 
king, I find my other brother serving swine." She was twenty- 
two years of age, beautiful, accomplished, and witty ; and we can 
readily believe that her coming must have cheered and brightened 
the little colony struggling, through many hardships, to make a 
liome in a new country. Dr. Thomas Robbins records in his 
diary, " This girl put the Colony in commotion. If possible she 
must be detained ; the stock was too valuable to be parted with. 
It was a matter of general consultation, what young man was good 
enough to be presented to Miss Pitkin. Simon Wolcott, of 



176 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Windsor, was fixed upon and, beyond expectation, succeeded in 
obtaining her hand." 

If this question became " a matter of general consultation," it 
is quite natural that the family of Henry Wolcott should be first 
considered. Henry Wolcott held an estate in England yielding a 
fair income, which he had freely used for the benefit of the expedi- 
tion to the New England Colonies, which he had joined, not as an 
adventurer, but upon "a mission of civilization and Christianity." 
lie was one of the first persevering settlers of the town of Windsor, 
a member of the first (General Assembly held in Connecticut, and 
in 1643, he Avas elected to the House of Magistrates, as the State 
Senate was then called — a position wliicli he held during his life. 
It is recorded that "after the pastor, he was the most distin- 
guished man in Windsor." 

We have also the tradition that two of the sons of Henry 
Wolcott were charmed with the visitor at Mr. Pitkin's house, and, 
rather than suffer from family quarrels and estrangement, that they 
decided to settle bv lot tlie question as to which should ask for 
the hand of Martha Pitkin. The lot fell to Simon, the youngest 
and handsomest of the five brothers. The story is pleasingly told 
in a poem by Charles Knowles Bolton, from which the following 
is an extract : 

■'He took his brother's hand and said : 
' Where we may not go on together 
Voii shall go first, and all my prayers 
Shall plead for you.' Then neither spoke. 
The smell of pine trees filled the air, 
And flowers beyond held waiting cups 
Toward the gray sky. 

" ' No,' said his brother, 
' No, Simon, you have loved as I, 
And which of us could serve her best 
For this world's happiness and that 
To come, God knows, and his own will 
Shall make decision. I will hold 
This sweet wild rose and this poor weed 
Behind me, one in cither hand, 
And he whom God knows would be best 
For her, may he win her as he 
Shall choose the rose.' 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 177 

" The moon came full 
Above the ominous clouds, 
And from the boughs that svva3'ed and swung 
Across the narrow wa}^ the birds 
Looked out and twittered in the light. 
The first house that foretold the town 
Beyond, stood dim beside the road ; 
No face looked out as these two men 
Rode b}', one wavering 'twixt jo}^ 
And pit}-, with the wild sweet rose 
That he had drawn pressed close upon 
His beating heart, and one benumbed — 
A weed left in his outstretched hand." 

Whether this scene is fact or fiction, the unpoetic records say 
that Simon Wolcott married Martha Pitkin, " late of England," 
October 17, 1661. Her life in the new world was one of hardships. 
In 167 1 Simon Wolcott sold his place in Windsor and removed to 
Simsbury, where he had received a grant of land. This change 
proved most unfortunate, as the settlers were driven from the place 
by the Indians and their property destroyed. Even Mrs. Wolcott's 
pewter dishes, which her husband concealed in a swamp, could 
never be found. Mr. Wolcott fled with his family to Windsor, 
where he remained a few years, but rents were high and difficult 
to obtain, and he may have thought his growing debts more 
intolerable than the possible depredations of Indians on the east 
side of the river where he owned land. In either case, he ventured 
to move to his possessions on the east side in 1680. 

The children of Martha Pitkin and Siinon Wolcott were : 

1. Elizabeth, b. rg August, 16G2 ; m. Daniel Cooley of Longmeadow, Mass. 

2. Martha, b. 17 May, 1664 ; m. 6 January, 1686, Thomas Allyn of Windsor, 

Conn. 

3. Simon, b. 24 June, 1666 ; m. 5 December, i68g, Sarah (dau. of Capt. John) 

Chester of Wethersfteld, Conn. 

4. Joanna, b. 30 June, 1668 ; m. 2 September, 1690, John Colton of Longmeadow, 

Mass. 

5. Henry (Lieut.), b. 20 May, 1670 ; m. (i) i April, 1696, Jane (dau. of Thos.) 

Allyn of Windsor, (2) m. Rachel Talcott. 

6. Christopher, b. 4 July, 1672, unmarried. 

7. May, b. 1674 ; d. 1676. 

8. William, b. 6 November, 1676; m. 5 November, 1706, Abiah Hawley of 

Windsor. 

9. Roger (Gov.), b. 4 January, 1679 ; ni. 3 December, 1702, Sarah (dau. of Job) 

Drake of Windsor, Conn. 

12 



178 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

In the private journal of Roger, the youngest son of Simon and 
Martha Pitkin Wolcott, we find this record of their family life 
in South Windsor : 

" In the year 1680 my father settled on his own land on the east 
side of the river, everything was to begin, few families were 
settled there. We had neither Minister nor school, by which it 
hath come to pass that I never was a Scholar in any school a day 
in my life : My parents took great care and pains to learn their 
children and were successful with the rest but not with me by 
reason of my extreme dullness to learn. On Sept. 11, 1687, dyed 
mv hon*' father in the 62'' year of his age : it was just before the 
coming of Sir Edmund Andross. It was generally expected that 
persecution for religion would soon ensue : it filled him with 
agonizing fears and excited his fervent prayers for deliverance, 
but God took him away from the evil he feared to come." 

Thougli Martlia Wolcott was left with six of her children to 
provide for, the land uncleared, the estate in debt, the journal 
adds "but we never wanted" — a short sentence which speaks 
volumes for the faithfulness and energy of the Avidowed mother. 

Roger, who makes the al)ove record, was only eight years old 
when his father died, but his education had not been neglected 
through all the disasters and privations of the family. Though he 
placed himself on record as a child of extreme dullness, he 
surmounted this obstacle by great exertion and became the most 
distinguished of Martha Pitkin Wolcott's sons. Again he says in 
his journal : 

'•In 1707 I took my first step to preferment, being this year 
chosen selectman of the town of Windsor, In the year 1709 I was 
chosen a Representative for that town in the General Assembly. 
In 1710 I was put on the Bench of Justices. ... In the year 171 1 
I went on the expedition against Canada, Commissary of the 
Connecticut Stores. . . . In 17 14 I was chosen into the Council. 
On the 13th day of October 1719, dyed my honoured mother Mrs. 
Martha Clark in the 80th year of her age. She was a gentle- 
woman of bright natural parts, which were well improved bv her 
education in the City of London. She came to New England in 
1 66 1, the same year she was marry ed to my father. The rest of 
her useful life she spent in the wilderness doing good and setting 
an example of piety, prudence, charity and patience. In the vear 
1 73 1 I was appointed judge of the County Court. In tlie vear 



DAUGHTERS OF THli AMERICAN RE\T)LUTION. 



179 



1732 I was appointed one of the Judges of the Superior Court. . . . 
In tlie year 1741 I was cliosen Deputy Gov'' of this Colony and 
appointed Cliief Judge of tlie Superior Court. In the year 1745 I 
led forth the Connecticut troops in the expedition against Cape 
Breton and rec'^ a Commission from Gov' Shirley and Gov' Law 
for Major-General of the Army. I was now in the 69th year of 
my age and the oldest man in the army except the Rev'' Mr. 
Moody. ... In the year 1750 I was chosen GoA^ernor of the Colony 
of Connecticut." 




'■:^£^^w:m 



HOME OF MAJOR-OENEKAL OLIVER WOLLUTT. 



(Built in 1754 on South Street, Litchiielil. In the rear of the house the statue of Georoe III. was 

melted into bullets.) 



Roger Wolcott, when he became Governor of Connecticut, was 
in his seventy-second year, having spent the most of his lite in the 
faithful service of his country. Though burdened with the duties 
of public life he found time for much reading and for the compo- 
sition of poems, some of them of great length. Like the times in 
whicli he lived thev were of a very serious nature, expressing 



a So THE PATROX SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

more piety than poetry perhaps, but remarkable as "quaint relics 
of a by-g-onc age." He was the pioneer of American poets. 

It is in the services of Roger's sons, Generals Erastus and 
Oliver Wolcott, who were the grandsons of Martha Pitkin 
Wolcott, that we find her representation in the Revolutionary 
period. Few families contributed to the cause two generals of 
distinguished merit, both of whom were eminent statesmen, one 
being a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 

The list of the children of Gov. Roger Wolcott and Sarah Drake, 
his wife, is as follows : 

1. RoGKR (Maj.), b. 14 September, 1704 ; m. (t) Mary Nesvbury of Windsor, (2) 

Eunice Ely (widow), of W. Springfield ; d. October 19, 1759. 

2. E1.IZA.UETI1, b. April 10, 1706; m. 4 August, 1727, Capt. Roger Newbury 

Esq., of Windsor. 

3. Ai.EXA.NDKK^ 1). 20 January, 1707 (S) ; d. S October, 1711. 

4. Samuel, b. 9 [anuary, 1709 (10) ; d. 27 December, 1717. 

5. Aekxanuer (Dr.), b. 7 Jan., 1711 (12) ; m. (i) December 4, 1732, Lydia 

Atwater of N. Haven ; (2) 17 March, 1739, Mary (wid. Fitz John) Allyn of 
N. Haven ; (3) 3 April, 1745, Mary Richards of N. London ; d. 25 March 

1795- 

6. Sarah, b. and d. December 10, 1712. 

7. Sarah, b. 31 January, 1715 ; d. 5 January, 1735. 

S. Hepzibah, b. 23 June, 1717 ; m. 10 Nov. 1737, John Strong of E. Windsor. 
9. JosiAH, b. 6 February, 1718 (19) ; d. 2() June, 1802. 

10. ERASrcs, b. 8 February, 1721 ; d. 11 May, 1722. 

11. Ei'APHRAS, b. 8 February, 1721 ; d. 3 April, 1733. 

12. ERASTUS (Gen.), b. 21 September, 1722 ; m. 10 February, 1746, Jerusha 

Wolcott (dau. of John), of So. Windsor ; d. 14 September, 1793. 

13. Ursula, b. October 20, 1724; m. 10 November, 1743, Gov. Matthew Gris- 

wold of Lyme. 

14. OLIVER (Gov.), b. 20 November, 1726 ; m. 21 January, 1755, Lorraine (or 

Laura) dau. of Capt. Daniel Collins of Guilford ; d. at Litchfield, Conn., i 
December, 1797. 

15. >L\kiANN, 1). I January, 1729 ; m. 5 December, 175S, Thomas Williams, Esq., 

of Brooklyn, Conn. 

16. , d. December, 1729. 

The Revolutionarv historv of lu-astus Wolcott (Roger's son) is 
In-icHy summed up by Stiles as follows : 

lie Avas "repeatedly representative to tlie General Assembly; 
^c speaker of the Lower House ; Justice of the Peace ; Judge of 
Probate; Chief Judge of the County Court; Representative in 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. l8l 

United States Congress ; Judge of Superior Court ; Brigadier- 
General of Connecticut troops in the Revolutionary War ; in the 
spring of 1775 was sent, with Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, from the 
Connecticut Legislature to treat with Gen. Gage, tlien in com- 
mand of the British troops at Boston, and to ascertain, as far as 
possible, the designs of the British, with a view to an immediate 
preparation for the worst events, an interview in wliich they 
gained only specious and delusive promises of peace. He was 
commissioned Colonel in 1775, and in 1776 he was appointed to 
the command of a regiment of Militia, with which he joined the 
army then investing Boston, under Washington ; from thence he 
proceeded to New London, where he superintended the erection 
of fortifications and, with his regiments, garrisoned Forts Trum- 
bull and Griswold during the summer ; appointed in December, 
1776, a Brigadier-General, he served at and around Peekskill, 
N. Y. He was a firm patriot and able advocate for the liberties 
of his country ; and Yale College, in recognition of his personal 
worth and public services, bestowed on him an honorary degree. 
. . . He was noble hearted and generous ; with no ambition for 
public life, accepting such offices as were offered him from a 
simple and sincere sense of duty." 

Oliver Wolcott, anotlier son of Roger, became prominent in 
Revolutionary history. Like his fatiier and brother he also served 
his state in many public offices. In 1776 he was a member of the 
Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Indejjen- 
dence. During this session of Congress, when on his return to his 
home in Litchfield he carried thither the gilded, leaden statue 
of King George III., which vears before had been erected in the 
city of New York. On the opening of hostilities it had been 
broken in pieces by the populace of New York, and, under the 
direction of Oliver W^olcott, with the assistance of his family and 
"sundry persons" in Litchfield, it was converted into bullets for 
the army. 

In 1777 Oliver Wolcott was appointed Brigadier-General by 
the General Assembly of Connecticut. After sending several 
thousand men to aid General Putnam on the North River he 
headed a corps of between three and four hundred volunteers, 
joined the Northern Army under General Gates, took command 
of a Brigade of Militia, and aided in reducing the British Army 
under General Burgovne. 



1 82 THK PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

During- tlie winter of 1779-80, a period of great suffering from 
famine and cold, no one exhibited more heroism than Oliver 
Wolcott, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, of whom 
Barlow wrote : 

" Bold Wolcott urged the all-important cause, 
With steady hand the solemn scene he draws ; 
Ihidaunted tirniness with his wisdom joined, 
Xor I<ings nor worlds could warp his steadfast mind." 

His "undaunted firmness" was proved during that terrible 
winter, concerning which his son writes : 

•' Every dollar that could be spared from the maintenance of the 
family was expended in raising and supplying men ; every 
blanket not in actual use was sent to the Army, and the sheets 
were torn into bandages or cut into lint by the hands of his wife 
and daughters. . . . From the beginning to the end of the Revo- 
lutionary War he was constantly engaged, either in the Council 
or in the field."* 

From 1786 to 1796 he served his state as Lieutenant-Governor. 
In 1796 he was chosen Governor and held the office till his 
death. " The State had no truer servant and no better citizen." 
His son Oliver became the third governor of the Wolcott name, 
and his son Frederick was twice offered the governorship, but was 
obliged to decline on account of ill-health. 

Ursula Wolcott, a daughter of Roger, appears to have resembled 
her grandmother in character. She married Matthew Griswold 
of Lyme, who became Governor of Connecticut. Of her descend- 
ants we find this remarkable rec(jrd, "the list comprises no less 
than twelve Governors, thirty-six high Judges and a galaxy of 
men eminent in other i)rofessions." 

Only a few names have been mentioned in one line of the 
descendants of Martha Pitkin Wolcott. Others in this line, 
and in the different branches of the family, were eminent 
m the professions and faithful servants of their country in the 
Revolution. To the i)resent day her descendants manifest the 
traits whicli distinguish their early ancestors. Among those of 
the present day who liave filled prominent positions in the affairs 
■■•Wolcott Memorial (p. 153). By Sanuiel Wolcott. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



183 



of State may be mentioned Roger Wolcott, Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, and Edward Wolcott, United States Senator from 
Colorado. 

The monnment erected to the memory of Simon Wolcott in 
Windsor bears this inscription : 

" Here lyes waiting For ye 
Resurrection of ye iust 
Mr. Simon Wolcott. 

Also Martha Pitkin 

Wife of Simon Wolcott 

Rorn 1639 Dyed ocf 13, 1719. ' 




(In the cemetery at '\\'indsor.) 

Though this inscription appears to indicate the burial-place of 
Martha Pitkin Wolcott, and many have been misled by it, her 
grave is in the old cemetery in South Windsor, where also may 
be found the grave of her grandson, Brigadier-General Erastus 
Wolcott. From the Wolcott Memorial we learn that " the widow 
of Simon Wolcott married Daniel Clark of Windsor. A headstone 



1 84 



THE I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



marks her grave in the old churchyard in South Windsor, and 
her name has also been inscribed on the durable monument of 
her first husband in the Windsor churchyard." 




.*^**^ss^ 




HURIAI, PLACE AND (IKAVESTONE OK MAKTIiA ITl KIN WOLCOTT CLARK, 
SOUTH WINDSOR. 

The headstcjne in South Windsor bears the following inscrip- 
tion : 



" Here lyeth : sleep 
ing in Jesus : y. Bo 
dy of M"-" Mar- 
tha Clark Alies 
Wolcott Who 
Died Oct'; y: 13 
17 19 Aged 80 Years " 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 85 

Martha Pitkin Wolcott has been called a grandmother of the 
Revolution. It is to the women of her time, who faced danger 
courageously, endured privation patientlv, looked forward hope- 
fully, and educated their children and grandchildren, by precept 
and example, to be God-fearing patriots, that we owe what is best 
in our history. The sons and grandsons of these women, inherit- 
ing their virtues and profiting by their example and instruction, 
became the soldiers of the Revolution — heroes whom the nation 
will delight more and more to honor V\'ith the passing of each 
generation. 

Elizabeth E. Jf. S/crry. 

(MRS. LEWIS SI'EKKY.) 



The authorities used in compiling this sketch were : 
Wolcott Memorial. Samuel Wolcott. 
Ancient Windsor, Stiles, p. 826. 
Magazine of American History, March, 18S4, pp. 234-23- 



1 86 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

1[n riDcinoriain 



Mrs. Spcrrv, the writer of the preceding- sketch of Martha Pitkin 
Wolcott, died at South Windsor, August 3, 1900. She Avas a 
direct descendant of Martlia Pitkin and Simon Wolcott through 
Lieut. Henry, Capt. Gideon, Samuel, and Samuel's seventh child 
Elizabeth Wolcott, who was the grandmother of Mrs. Sperry, and 
who married Deacon Erastus Ellsworth of New York, late of East 
Windsor Hill. 

Mrs. Sperrv's mother, Mary Lyman Ellsworth, married Dr. 
William Wood, son of Rev. Luke Wood of Waterbury, Conn. 
Eor many years, and until his death in 1S84, Dr. Wood was a 
successful and much esteemed physician in South Windsor and 
vicinity, and was more widely "known as an ornithologist. He 
left a collection of birds of rare value, which is now preserved 
at Wadsworth's Athenaeum, Hartford. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Ellsworth Wood Sperry was born Avigust 31, 
1849, at South Windsor. She was married November 7, 1878, to 
lion. Lewis Sperry of South Windsor, who represented the first 
district of Connecticut in the fifty-second and fifty-third Con- 
gresses, and who is now a practicing lawyer of the firm of Sperry 
S: McLean of Hartford. Hon. George P. McLean of this firm 
was elected Governor of Connecticut in November, 1900, and at 
the present writing (Januarv, 1901) has entered upon the duties 
of his office. 

Mrs. Sperry had two children, a daughter Mary Elizabeth 
S{)erry. and a son Ellsworth Sperrv, who survive her. 

Her Revolutionary ancestry is of marked distinction, and 
extends in five different lines to patriots through her father. Dr. 
Wood, as well as througli the Wolcott and P^Usworth branches. 
Slie inherited much of the intellectual and moral strength of her 
noted ancestors, and was beloved by all who knew her for her 
rare qualities and grace of character. In everv relation she was 
always the Christian gentlewoman — quiet and unassuming in 
manner and absolutely faithful in the discharge of every duty. 
In her friendships she always inspired others to do their best, and 
" being dead she still speaketh." 



RUTH HART 



WIFE OF 



SELAH HART 

B li gadwr-Gi'iieral Coii>h'itirtit Militia 
LieiifeihTiil-ColoucI Coiihiniital L~/niii' 



RUTH HART CHAPTER 
MERIDEN 



RUTH HART 




URING Colonial days, one hundred and fifty-seven 
years ago, a daug-hter came to gladden the hearts of 
Matthew Cole and his wife, Mary Newell. They 
named her Ruth. 

The entire century through which Ruth Cole Hart lived was 
one of conflict and change, and is especially remarkable for the 
political changes which occurred in America. During the thirty- 
three years of her youth Ruth Cole was a subject of King George 
II., and of King George III. Then followed fifteen years of strife, 
bloodshed, and turmoil ; beginning with the war of the American 
Revolution, which lasted eight years, and which was followed by 
seven years of differences in political opinions among the patriots, 
ending in the adoption of the Constitution, with George Wash- 
ington as President of the new Republic. The remaining fifty- 
four years of Ruth Hart's life were spent under the successive 
administrations of ten Presidents : Washington, Adams, Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, and 
Tyler. 

Beside the struggles at home, there had been excitement abroad ; 
fierce and bitter conflicts in Europe ; the Colonial Wars of Great 
Britain and France ; the French Revolution ; the rise, growth, and 
fall of the Empire of Napoleon ; and in 1812 our second war with 
Great Britain. 

Happily her last days were peaceful ; repose succeeded turmoil ; 
quiet reigned until the end of her century-long life. 

Ruth Cole was born October 29, 1742. From the old records of 
the Kensington Church the following quotations are taken : 
" Selah Hart married Ruth Cole, December 22, 1763." "Ruth 
Hart united with the church, 1771." In the very beginning of the 
war her husband, Selah Hart, joined the patriots, and within the 



1 9© THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

first year Avas commissioned captain, and colonel, and later a 
brigadier-general. He was taken prisoner in 1776 near New 
York, and for many months was mourned by her as dead. After 
his release he entered the army again Avith the rank of brigadier- 
o-enerai and served through the remainder of the war. He lived 
to be seventv-four years old, but Ruth Hart, his wife, survived 
him thirty-eight years. She had no children and devoted her 
long life to others, especially to educational and church interests. 
In the Centennial sketch of the Society of Kensington by 
Edward Robbins, son of Rev. Ro\al Robbins, special prominence 
is given to Mrs. Ruth Hart. Mr. Robbins says : — 

" She was a woman of strong native powers of body and mind 
which her active and industrious habits through her life served to 
strengthen, the use of which she retained to an extraordinary 
degree almost to its close. She was distinguished for her piety 
and benevolence. From the circumstance of her husband being a 
Revolutionary officer, she receiA-ed, with one exception, the 
largest pension of any person in the State." 

Ruth Hart's declaration for pension was dated December 4, 
1836, her age at that time being ninety-four years. Her pension 
amounted to five hundred and seventy-five dollars yearly, wdiich 
she used towards various public and philanthropic objects. To 
her own Ecclesiastical Society she gave at one time one thousand 
dollars for the purpose of remodelling its house of worship. To 
Yale College she gave five hundred dollars as a scholarship for 
sup])orting pious and indigent students. To the American Edu- 
cational Society, on one occasion, she gave one hundred dollars. 

From the old records of Kensington Church the following is 
quoted: "At an annual meeting of Kensington Congregational 
Society, December 26, 1837, it Avas voted to appropriate slip No. 
42 for the use of widcnv Ruth Hart for the ensuing year." Her 
will, a portion of which is given herewith, is dated "this twenty- 
sixth day of April, i\.D. 1841." She was then ninety-nine years 
old, but her signatu.re shoAvs a strong, firm hand. 

On January 15, 1844, Ruth Hart passed aAvay, aged one hundred 
and one years, two montiis and sixteen days, and Avas laid at rest 
beside her husband. General Selah Hart, in the cemetery a short 
distance northwest (jf their home. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AJ^IERICAN REN'OLUTION. 



191 



The Hart Homestead, long- occupied by a granddaughter''^ of 
Cyprian Hart, is one-half mile from Berlin Station, charmingly 
located amid stately trees. The commission of General Hart (see 
p. 202) still hangs on the wall of the north front room. Ruth 




^"'^'^■St>>£S^f^ 



RUTH HART RKLICS. 
(Chair, Cane, Bibk', Funeral Sermon.) 



Hart's chair stands on a rug of olden time. Her Bible and cane, 
supports of her declining- years, are constant reminders of this 
remarkable woman to the present owner, who was so fortunate 
as to have passed a part of her childhood days with Ruth Hart. 



""The granddauErhter of Cyprian Hart died in November, igoo. Tl 
Hart homestead will probald^' remain in the family. 



Ruth 



192 THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

1 



. fJU^ 



^ 









■\ ,y £>/-c^ 



lORTlON OK KUTII HAUT's WILL AM) IIKR SIGNATURE. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 93 

Ruth Cole was a descendant of James Cole and of Stephen 
Hart. James Cole was born in Essex County, England. He was 
left a widower with a son John and a little daughter Abigail. 
Mrs. x^nn Edwards, widow of Rev. Richard Edwards, a Puritan 
minister of London, was his second wife. She had one young 
son, William Edwards, who was the progenitor of Jonathan 




JONATHylN T R[/ M bU L LMv,- 
Captain-General and Commander in Chief of His 
Majelty's Coloay of ConnccHcut, in lYcw-Enphmd. 

To . /////////U\ {ru . - Gj.„j Greetin" 

you b^ing by the General AiTembly oF.this Colonv, accepted toE^^X../ 

repofing fpecial Trail and Confidence in your LovaltT'co^raee 

and good Co' dud, 1 do, by Vntue of tl,e Letters Patent from the Crown of -, 

England to thu Cgiporation, iMc thereunto c nal)ling, appMini and itnpotter You /I 

to take the laid . ha.,,/:,,,/ into Your Care and Charge, .--.b t heir.:.AA.^, f ' 

carefully and diligenily to difchargc ili.it Tnift ; cxercifing yovJ 

inferior OfEccrs and . hr/,/,n.' ., ,„ i,, the L'fe of tlicir .Arms accordmg 

to the Dikipline of War : Keeping them in good Order and Guvernnva.t, aiui 

commanding thcni to obey You as tlieir ^h/u/r,u»,( f, ;• i\\^ Majeftv';. 

^er\ ice. -And you are te obferve all fuch Orders and Directions as frcm Ti'ine — w 
4o Time You ihall receive eith.:r from M:, or iVosn Otlicr vot'r Suocrior Officer, 
purfuant to the Trud hereby itnoJed in Vou. Gi\e;i imder my Hr.nd ajidthe 
Seal of this Colony, in . ■\f<.:)'^,i,;/i t!ie . V' — d')\ oi' ('<■/>' A- > 

in the ■, /-/ ' — Year oF the Rei^ni ui' Our Sovereign Lord GEor.C!; the 
Thiid, KING of GkeaivBiut.mv, &c. .'hnvjajif Domiri iji.- , J> 

By Hh Hoi!or\ Coiumniid, ' / i," ^Z' ^. 

/ 7 // > ^-^-- ^^^-^ 



MATTHEW COLES COMMISSION AS LIEUTENANT. 
(Dated 1773.) 

Edwards, the eminent theologian and metaph3'sician. Soon after 
his second marriage James Cole with his wife, daughter, and step- 
son emigrated to New England, joining the party which, under 
the leadership of Rev. Thomas Hooker, left Cambridge, Mass., 
October, 1635, for the Connecticut Valley. 

James Cole was one of the original proprietors of Hartford ; 
his name appears on the lists made by Hinman and by Porter of 
the original settlers ; also upon the monument erected by the 
13 



194 Tlll^ PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Ancient Burvini;- (Jround Association of Hartford, in memory of 
the original settlers. 

James Cole had a lot on the corner of two streets, called in the 
old records, one "the road from Moodys to the ox-pasture" or 
''the road to Wethersfield, which is now Main street." The otlier 
Avas called "thercjad to Wethersfield or the road from William 
Hill's to the ox-pasture." The latter was afterwards called Cole 
street. The most prominent families among the first settlers were 
located on the east side of this street. It retained the name of 
Cole street until 1.S51, when it received its present name of 
Governor street, because five governors of the colon}- and state 
had lived thereon. Adjoining !Mr. Cole's lot on the north was the 
lot of Thomas Judd, and next to Thomas Judd's was the estate of 
George Wyllys, a governor of the colony, on whose estate stood 
the famous Charter Oak. James Cole died in 1652. 

John Cole, son of James Cole and of his first wife, followed his 
father to New England, and was made a freeman in 1653. After 
his father's death he was appointed constable and lived in Weth- 
ersfield Lane, where his father lived. 

John Cole's son John settled in Farmington and married Mehit- 
abel Hart, third daughter of Deacon Steven Hart of Farmington. 
Their sons settled in Kensington. Ruth Cole, the subject of this 
sketch, was a descendant of one of the sons throua:h Matthew Cole 
her father, who married Mary Newell. In October, 1773, Matthew 
Cole was commissioned a lieutenant, and in December, 1775, a 
captain of the Third Comj^anv or Train-band in this Colonv.* 
His daughter Ruth was at this time the wife of vSelah Hart, whom 
she married in 1763. 

Mary Newell, the mother of Ruth Hart, was a descendant of 
Thorn as Newell, t one of the original proprietors of Farmington. 

* Matthew Cole had a nephew of tlie same name as himself. Whether the 
commission pictureil in the illustration on page 193 belonged to Matthew Cole, 
Senior, or to his nephew, has not thus far been definitely proved. 

t Thomas Ne well's wife was Rebekah Olmsted. Thomas Newell died in 16S9, 
leaving an estate of seven hundred pounds. His son, Ensign Samuel Newell, 
married Mary Hart, daughter of Thomas Hart, Esq., and of Ruth Hawkins. 
.\nthony Hawkins, father of Ruth Hawkins, was a distingushed man in Farm- 
ington. His wife was a daughter of Governor Welles. 

Thomas Newell, son of Samuel and Mary Hart Newell, married Mary Lee. 
Their daughter Mary married Captain Matthew Cole, whose daughter Ruth is 
the subject of this sketch. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:MERICAN REVOLUTION. 



195 



Deacon Steven Hart, the ancestor of Ruth Cole through Mehit- 
abel Hart, her grandmother, was also the ancestor of Selah Hart. 
Steven Hart came to Massachusetts about 1632, from Braintree, 
Essex County, England. He was one of the fifty-four settlers of 
Newtown, Mass., now Cambridge. He took the freeman's oath at 




HART FAMILY CO AT-OF-ARMS. 

(Arms— a lion passant, gardant, or in base; a human heart, argent. Crest— a dexter cubit arm, 
liolding a flaming sword, all proper. Motto— Fortiter et Fideliter.) 

Cambridge on May 14, 1634, came to Hartford with Rev. Thomas 
Hooker's Company in 1635, served as a deacon of Thomas 
Hooker's church in both Cambridge and Hartford, and was one 
of the principal settlers of Tunxis or Farmington. 

In the settlement of Farmington, Steven Hart seems to have 
taken the lead. The land was purchased of the Tunxis Indians, 



196 IIII-: r.\'IR()\ SAIXTS OF CONNKCTICUT CHAPTERS 

■lb / ^ii ' ^^ " ' '^ . .. , ..-■M 






.'( Ikcd 
















lie 




ic\nt i<r c»-fm /r»vr ;*>" '" ' 'J,' ^ •'T.-n n £. >'-'"<""■'• ./ 
►«/ IXt.riJttii'r 0/ ikis m*; L<l^ OKDllT nn^ J^^^'m^'^- 



^ 



■; / r 



rORTlDN OF STEVEN IlARX's WILL, DATED 16S2. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 97 

and in 1645 the town was incorporated under the name of Farming- 
ton. About this time Roger Newton, who married a daughter of 
Rev. Thomas Hooker, began to preach there, and in 1652 was 
ordained as pastor. Steven Hart Avas chosen first deacon, and was 
one of the seven " pillars " of the church. John Cole is also 
mentioned as one of the "pillars." 

In 1647 Steven Hart was one of the " Deputyes " of the General 
Court of Connecticut, and thereafter for many successive years 
until 1660. He died in March, 1682. The following copy of the 
will of Steven Hart, dated March t6, 1682, reads : 

"I give to my grandson Thomas Porter and my son-in-law, 
John Cole, my plowing land and medow and swamp, which was 
sometimes part of Andrew Warner's farm and abutts upon my son 
Steven Hart's land on the north " . . . "and as for the rest, as 
above sayd, I give to my beloved sons, Steven and Thomas Hart, 
and my beloved daughters, Sarah Porter and Marie Lee, and my 
son-in-law, John Cole, whom I make executors of this my last 
will and testament." 

The name Hart appears seven times in this document ; and John 
Cole, who is mentioned in this will, was the ancestor of Ruth 
Hart. 

Captain Thomas tlart, also mentioned in the will of Ste\'en 
Hart, was great-great-grandfather of Ruth Cole, and inherited a 
part of his father's homestead opposite the meeting-house. He 
was captain of the Train-band in 1695 ; represented Farmington in 
the General Court twenty-nine sessions, beginning in 1690 ; was 
several times clerk and speaker and a candidate for the Upper 
House. He was a member of the Council of Safety in 1697 ; filled 
the more important town offices and executed important trusts. 
He died in 1726, aged eighty-three years, and was buried with 
military honors. His estate was large, comprising two thousand 
acres. 

General Selah Hart of Kensington, the husband of Ruth Cole, 
was a descendant of Steven Hart, in the line of Steven Hart's 
oldest son, as follows : Stephen', John', John', Nathanier, and 
Selahl 

John Hart, the eldest son of Deacon Steven Hart, was born in 
Ene-land. He was one of the first settlers of Tunxis ; among the 



198 THE TATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

eiitates on tlie list of tlic eighty-four proprietors of 1672 is num- 
bered the estate of John Hart. At the session of the General 
Court, October, 1660, he had been elected one of the committee to 
examine "Thirty Miles Island" with a view to settlement. In 
1666 his house near the center of the village of Farmington was 
fired at night by the Indians. This resulted in the death of all the 
familv except the oldest son, John, who was absent at Nod, now 
Avon. The Tunxis town records were destroyed at the same time. 
The act of firing Mr. Mart's house was ascribed to the Farmington 
Indians, Mashupano and his accessories, who as indemnity paid 
each year, for seven years, a heavy tribute, " eighty faddoms 
of wampum, well strung and merchantable." 

Captain John Hart, eldest son of John, married Mary Moore, 
1695. He was commissioned ensign by the General Court previ- 
ous to October, 1703, when he was commissioned lieutenant, and 
afterwards he was promoted to the rank of captain. He was four 
successive vears a deputy from Farmington to the General Court, 
and was appointed in May, 1705, one of the auditors of the 
Colony. 

Nathaniel Hart, youngest son of Captain John Hart and his 
wife Mary Moore, married Al)igail Hooker, daughter of John 
Hooker, Esq., and of his wife, Abigail Stanley. Nathaniel Hart 
died October 24, 1758. The four sons that survived him were 
Selah, Nathaniel, Noadiah, and Asahcl. 

On the opposite page is a portion of a copy of an old document j 

in which the name Hart appears nine times. It is the division ' 

and distribution of all Nathaniel Hart's lands and real estate to 
liis four sons. "The divisions and distributions [were] made 
and divided the 7th day of July, 1760, by John Hooker and 
J(jseph Porter," and the acceptances of the same were by the 
four sons, Selah, Nathaniel, Noadiah and Asahel, whose signa- 
tures are affixed to the document. | 

General Selah Hart, the second son of Nathaniel, was born in ;j 

Kensington, May 23, 1732. He married first, :Mary, daughter of ' 

Stephen Cole and of his wife Abigail Hart; after the death of 
Mary Cole, his wife, Selah Hart married, December 22, 1763, Ruth 
Cole, daughter of Matthew Cole and of his wife Mary Newell. 
Cieneral Hart had but one child, Mary, who died young and who 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 1 99 

was the daughter of his first wife Mary Cole. He adopted as his 
son, Cyprian, the sixth son of liis brother Nathaniel. 

That Selah Hart inherited the integrity and ability of his ances- 
tors is evident from the records of church and state. In 1763 he 
joined the church of Kensington, served as deacon and treasurer 












.^ 






DIVISION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE REAL ESTATE OF NATHANIEL HART. 
(Showing- the signatures of the four sons of Nathaniel Hart.) 

for many years — even until his death. He was moderator of the 
first town meeting in Berlin, June 13, 1785, and he represented 
Farmington in the General Assemblv four times. In October, 
1762, he entered upon his military career, having been appointed 
by the General Assembly an ensign of the Seventh Company 
or Train-band, in the Sixth Regiment. In 1763 he was appointed 



200 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

a lieutenant, and in 1764 a captain. His Revolutionary record 
be£cins in 1775, when Selah Ilart was appointed one (jf the com- 
mittee to provide ammunition for the Connecticut Colony, soon 
after which he received, according to the records, the following 
official commissions, orders and reports : 

May, 1776. "This Assembly do appoint Selah Hart to be Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment Militia, in place of 
Fisher Gay promoted." 

Tune, 1776. "This Assembly do appoint James Wadsworth, 
Jun\ Esq'', to re-inforce the Continental Army of New York." 
(Selah Hart's company belonged to James Wadsworth's brigade.) 

October, 1776. "This Assembly do appoint Selah Heart to be 
Colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment in place of Fisher Gay 
deceased. 

"Xoadiah Hooker to be Fieutenant-Colonel in place of Selah 
Hart promoted." 

Selah Hart was taken priscjner near New York September 15, 
1776 — exchanged 1777, and the records give the following partic- 
ulars : 

"Immediately after their victory on Long Island, the British 
made dispositions to attack New York. Under an apprehension 
that the place was indefensible, it was decided in a Council of 
General Officers that it was inexpedient [for the patriots] to 
attempt t(j hold possession. Accordingly the American Army 
was withdrawn with an inconsiderable loss of men ; but all heavy 
artillery and a large portion of the baggage, provision, and mili- 
tary stores, were unavoidably abandoned. On the 15th of Sep- 
tember, 1776, the British troops entered and took possession of 
the city. The regiment ccnnmanded by Colonel Selah Hart was 
cut off and he was captured by a bodv of the enemv's forces, which 
had ascended the Hudson and landed above him." 

May, 1777. "Lieutenant-Colonel Selah Hart hath preferred 
his Memorial to the Assemldy and Council, viz : 

\Vliereas Lieutenant-Colonel Selah Hart of Farmington hath 
preferred his memorial to this Assembly, for himself and about 
thirty-eight other continental officers captivated [captured] by the 
enemies of the United States of America and confined by them on 
L(jng Island, shewing to this Assembly that said officers and their 
families are reduced to great distress bv means of said officers 
being held in captivity, the most of them ever since the sixteenth 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 201 

of September last, since which they have received no wages, or 
allowances from the United vStates, or either of them, and that 
they have spent all their monev, are considerably in debt, and 
have no means of subsistence ; that they are unable to procure 
hard money ; that paper money or bills will not pay them ; pray- 
ing for relief, &c., as per memorial and a list of said officers names 
lodged in the files of this Assembly appears. 

Resolved by this Assembly, That the Committee of the Pay Table 
be, and they are hereby directed to adjust and settle said officers' 
accounts when produced to them, and to allow to them the same 
wages since their captivity as was allowed to officers of their rank 
in the Continental army at the tirne they were captured ; and that 
the committee pay to them, or to said Selah Hart, for their use, 
the balance dvie to each of said officers, or such part thereof as on 
consideration of their case may appear necessary for their relief ; 
Provided such evidence shall be produced as shall satisfy said 
committee that said officers have not received their wages already. 
And said committee are directed, if possible, to make said pay- 
ment, or considerable part thereof in hard money, and for that 
purpose to draw on the Treasurer of this State for the same or 
bills of credit, to exchange for the same, and the Treasurer is 
directed to pay the same accordingly ; and said committee are to 
charge the sum so paid to the United States and transmit an 
account thereof to General Washington, with the names and 
officers of the persons to whom or for whom the same is paid, and 
the batalion and Company to which they belonged, as soon as 
they can ascertain the same, and request the General to give 
orders that said sum mav be ordered and paid to the Treasurer of 
this State, for the use of this State." 

"A meeting of Governor and Council of Safety, August 6, 1777. 
A letter w^as received from Brigadier-General O. Wolcott, in 
which he informs that he has ordered all the effective men of 
Hart's Regiment to march well armed, and to take four days pro- 
visions to Peekskill, to defend that post which seems to [be] the 
enemy's object ; which orders of General Wolcott are approved." 

Meeting of Governor and Council of Safety, February 26, 1778. 
" Resolved that Selah Hart be permitted to go into New York on 
his parol and to return when desired." 

May, 1779. "This Assembly do appoint Selah Hart, Esq., to be 
Brigadier-General of tlie Si.xth Brigade of Militia in this State, 
in the room of the Hon'''^' Oliver Wolcott Esq' promoted." 

The chapter in John Fiske's History of the American Revolu- 
tion recording the events of 1779-S0 is entitled ''The Year of 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



-=C * 







^ 




r^^ 




V 






\ 






s 






V 






^ 






■ 1 




1^7 




\ 




' \l 




■ X 









DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 203 

Disasters." In the summer of 1779 tlie British raided Connecti- 
cut and Virginia, destroying- many towns, and pLaced tlie defense- 
less inhabitants in great distress ; in the South, the American army 
was defeated in several battles and the British took possession of 
Charlestown. In the early autumn of 1780 the revelation of 
Arnold's treason was the climax of disasters, and brought greater 
dismay and distress to the leaders of the patriots tlian the 
losses by battles and raids. " In so far as these barbarous raids 
[into Connecticut] had any military purpose, it was hoped 
that they miglit induce Washington to weaken his force at the 
Highlands by sending troops into Connecticut to protect 
private propertv. . . . Wasliington's method of relieving Con- 
necticut was different from what was expected."* A few miles 
below the American camp was Stony Point, which guarded the 
entrance to the Highlands. In May (1779) while the Americans 
were building the fort at Stonv Point, Sir Henrv Clinton 
came up the river and captured it. Washington took this 
opportunity while the enemy were in Connecticut to recapture 
Stony Point, intrusting the enterprise to General Anthony 
Wavne, whose capture of the fort on July 15, 1779, is one of the 
brilliant exploits of the Revolution. 

During these events the Governor of Connecticut and his 
Council were in frequent session, doing their utmost to provide 
means for the defense of Connecticut. In this extremity their 
dependence on General Hart (among others) is evidenced from 
the following extracts from the State Records of 1779-80 : 

"Saturday, 10^'' July, i779- ^let, &c. Express (near night) 
from Gen'l Hart who advised again of the motion of the enemy 
from the westward, &c., &c., and ordered thereupon, that half of 
Brig.-Gen. Wolcott's two regiments west of the river be detached 
& sent toward Greenwich, &c." 

" Monday, 12*'' Julv. Council met, &c. Copy of orders (rec'd) 
from Gen'l O. Wolcott at Norvvalk, dated lo"* July, to Gen'l Hart 
Counting that he had ordered him to detach half his brigade & 
March, &c. — but apprehends so large a force unnecessary." 

"Monday, July 12, 1779. Council met. Letter and request 
sent Gen. Glover at New London informing him of Major- 

*John Fiske. 



204 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

General Wolcott's orders to General Hart and the intelligence 
from the fleet as before mentioned, &c., and proposing his longer 
stay at New London with his Brigade." 

"Wednesday, 14 July, 1779. Council met again. Letter ordered 
to Brig.-Gen. llart directing him to enquire into the state of the 
cartridges in his brigade, to apply to the Pay Table for an order 
for powder and for lead and to cause a suitable number of cart- 
ridges to be made up and to be under his care." 

" Fryday, 16 July, 1779. Ccnmcil met again. The following 
orders were sent to the six brigades of the State : ' To John Doug- 
las, Esq., Brigadier General, to cause peremptory drafts by proper 
officers to be made immediately from your brigade of one hundred 

&: ninety-four able bodied effectiye men to join & serye 

in the line & for the term aforesaid until the 15"' day of Jan., 
unless sooner discharged.' " 

"Saturday, 17 July, 1779. Council met again. Similar to the 
order of Gen'l Douglass the orders to Gen. Selah Hart who is 
ordered to giye orders for draught." 

Monday, July 19, 1779. Goyernor and Council met. "Heard 
by letters &:c the agreeable news of General Wain's storming and 
carrying the enemy's fort at Ston}' Point with 500 prisoners, large 
stores lie &c last Fryday night, the i6th." 

Orders prepared and signed to General Hart to detach from his 
brigade (the sixth in No.) " one hundred and fifty-four men as 
aforesaid for said seryice." (The aforesaid orders were "for 
draught from yarious towns to join the Continental Army.") 

"At a meeting of Goyernor and Council at Lebanon this 25th 
of Noyember 1779, ^fter much consideration, concluded, ordered 
and resolyed that one-half the Militia heretofore ordered to be 
raised and marched on the 10th of October last, and whose march 
was after suspended, that the half of them, yiz : on the west side 
of tlie Connecticut riyer be forthwith ordered to be marched under 
proper officers and stationed at seyeral places. General Hart's at 
Stratford." 

"At a General Assembly of the Goyernor and Company of the 
State of Connecticut . . ". Holden at Hartford ... on the first 
Thursday of January, 1780: . . 

" It is also further resolyed by the Assembly that there be forth- 
witli drafted out of the militia in the brigade'under the command 
(»f Brigadier-CJen' Silliman, and that brigade under the command 
under Briga. (;en. Hart, eight companies: . . . 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AJ.IERICAN REVOLUTION. 



205 



"That thev repair immediately to Greenwich and take post 
there under the command of Colo. John Mead for defence of that 
place, until the first of May next unless sooner dismissed. That 
they be supplied with provisions by one or more commissaries to 
be appointed for that purpose by his excellency the Governor and 
Council of Safety. That the wages and supplies of the officers 
and soldiers of said companies to be the same as is allowed to the 
other guards raised and employed for defense of this State." 




STONE ERECilU) In 1 I i r- .\iK.Mui;V wi i ,K.\ KK. vi. ,-^Ki.Ail HART. 
(Replaced by a Monument.) 

General Hart's name is also found in the "Connecticut Men 
in the Revolution" among the general officers present with the 
militia at New Haven and vicinity during the New Haven alarm. 

General Hart continued in the service throughout the war, and 
filled various civil offices after the war. In 1788 he was a delegate 
to the State Convention for the adoption or rejection of the Consti- 



206 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

tution of the United States. He died June ii, 1806, aged seventy- 
four years. A plain slab of marble formerly marked his resting 
place in the cemetery; later a monument was erected to his mem- 
ory, bearing the following inscription : 

General Selah Hart, 
An OfBcer of the Revolution 

who died 

June nth, 1806, J^ 74 years. 

" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 

Ruth Cole survived her husband thirty-eight years. The few 
facts concerning her life which are recorded have already been 
given. 

For glimpses of her personality there remains on record only 
the sermon preached at her funeral by the Rev. Royal Robbins, 
pastor of the Congregational church in Kensington, who says : 
"It was said of her that she was a peculiar ornament to the Gos- 
pel which she had embraced, for she so abounded in good works 
and alms-deeds that her whole life was a continual succession of 
them, as a tree is full of fruit when every branch is loaded with it. 
She not only gave away her substance but she employed herself 
in laboring for the poor widows and other believers, so that her 
death was considered a i:)ul)lic loss, ller verv protracted sojourn 
on earth was one of i)e(:uliar privilege and enjoyment in manv 
respects. She retained her faculties, both of body and mind, to 
the last. Her corporeal and muscular energv held out, so as to 
admit of her engaging in regular and frequent exercise. Her 
memory, judgment, and other intellectual operations, and her 
powers of speech, were not very perceptibly impaired tip to the 
time of her decease. vShe was able and inclined to do for herself 
those offices Avhich in extreme age are usually assumed by others. 
It is not known that she ever had an occasion to call for the 
services of a physician for any sickness except that of which she 
died ; and only on one (occasion, a year or two before her death, 
was aid recpiired, on account of a fall which she received. 

Her love of reading continued, her eyesight icmained good, her 
memory was retentive, her sense of hearing, alone, was a little 
impaired in the latter part of her life. As an instance of her fac- 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



207 



ulty of recollection, she was asked, Miow life appeared in the 
retrospect?' She readily replied that she could not express her 
feelings better than to quote the words of Young (from his poem 
on Resignation) : 





MONUMENT TO GENERAL SKI. AH llAKI'. II !■ AI iMONE IN MKMUKY OF RUTH HART. 



' One world deceased ; anotlier born, 

Like Noah, we behold : 
O'er whose white locks and furrowed brow. 

So many suns have rolled.' 

She spoke of the value of her Bible, her fondness in perusing 
it ; avowed often her obligations to the Lord, to do for his cause, 
as she was only a steward, entrusted with a portion of his gifts." 



:;o8 THE J'ATRON SAIXTS OF CONXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Near the niominicnt to General Hart is tlie gravestone of his 
wife, which bears this inscription : 

Mrs. Ruth IIakp 

Wn-E OF Genkrai. Sklaii Harp 

Born Oct. 29tli, 1742. 

Died J:in. 15th. 1844. 

J£, loi years, 2 months and 16 daj's. 

Extraordinary in age, she was not less 

distinsuislicd by strength of character, correctness 

of moral principal and holiness of life. 

She adorned the profession of the Gospel 

during nearly three quarters of a century. 

A friend of God, and her species, her memory 

will triumph over the wrecks of time." 

Elizabeth Hall UpJiain. 



Authorities used in compiling this sketch were : 

Cole Family Genealogies. 

"Thomas Newell and his Descendants." 

Genealogical History of Deacon Stephen Hart and his 
Descendants. By Alfred Andrews. 

A Sermon delivered at the Funeral of Mrs. Ruth Hart, 
a Centenarian. By Rev. Royal Robbins, pastor of 
Cong, church of Kensington. 

Colonial Records of Connecticut. 

State Records. 

Church Records. 

" Connecticut Men in the Revolution." 

New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 

Wills. 

Old Documents. 

Bureau of Pensions. 

Family Recollections. 

Memorial History of Hartford County. By J. Ham- 
mond Trumbull, LL.D., Pres. Conn. Hist. Society. 

Savage's Genealogical Dictionary. 



SARAH RIGGS HUMPHREYS 

llUbo^c jfour Sows Served in the IRcvolution 

COLONEL DAVID HUMPHREYS 
y^ide to JVashiiigto)i 

MAJOR ELIJAH HUMPHREYS 

JOHN HUMPHREYS 

DANIEL HUMPHREYS 



ELIZABETH CLARKE HULL 

"uUlbose BusbanO anC* G^bicc Son^ Scvvci? in tbc IRcvolution 

CAPTAIN JOSEPH HULL 

COLONEL WILLIAM HULL 
CAPTAIN JOSEPH HULL 
SAMUEL HULL 



SARAH RIGGS HUMPHREYS CHAPTER 
DERBY 



ELIZABETH CLARKE HULL CHAPTER 
ANSONIA 



14 



■• While freedom's cause his patriot bosom warms, 
In lore of nations skilFd, and brave in arms. 
See Humphreys glorious from the field retire, 
Sheath the glad sword and string the sounding lyre— 
That lyre, which erst, in hours of dark despair, 
Rous'd the sad realms to urge th' unfinish'd war: 
O'er fallen friends, with all the strength of woe, 
His heartfelt sighs in moving numbers flow. 
His country's wrongs, her duties, dangers, praise. 
Fire his full soul, and animate his lays. 
Immortal Washington with joy shall own 
So fond a fav'rite and so great a son." 

—A Tribute to navid Humphreys bv Joel Barlow. 



SARAH RIGGS HUMPHREYS 




HE researclies of to-day have brought us face to face 
with liistorical characters, the memory of wliose ser- 
vices seemed buried forever. But systematic and 
persistent effort has served to repeople waste places, 
and to awaken the echoes of the patriots' march, until the very men 
and women whose graves we mark with the flag of liberty and 
with tlie flowers of love and peace seem to be alive again. In 
this "choir immortal " is Sarah Riggs Humphreys, a descendant of 
men whose lives in each generation were replete with patriotism 
and sacrifice, and the mother cjf scuis who serxed during the 
Revolution in the cause oi liberty, both in tlie field and council 
chamber. Hence her name has been chosen by the Derby Daugh- 
ters of the American Revolution to grace and honor their chapter. 
The first of her family in America was Edward Riggs, Avho 
came from England and settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1633. His 
son vSergeant Edward's daring and successful exploit in the 
Pequot war, in rescuing his commander and twelve of his com- 
rades from a dangerous ambuscade, is a part of Connecticut's 
early history. 

Sergeant Edward Riggs settled in Milford, Conn., in 1646, and in 
1654 removed to Derby. The concealment within the shelter of 
his " forted and palisadoed" house, of the much hunted Regicide 
Judges, Goffe and Whalley, is an evidence of his independence 
and high sense of justice, and is an act which should awaken 
the gratitude of all lovers of constitutional liberty. In 1666 
Edward Riggs removed to New Jersey with all his family 
except his son. Ensign Samuel, who married Sarali (daughter of 
Richard Balchvin), and remained on his fatlier's homestead in 
Derby. Samuel was several times elected a deputy and a justice 
of tlie peace, and filled many other responsible local offices. 



212 rilK I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Samucrs son John, l)()rn in 1676, succeeded liis father in the 
occupancy of the Derby Iioniestead, and in his turn became a 
representative man of the town, honored and trusted with many 
offices. To I oh 11 Kii^'gs and his wife Elizabeth Tomlinson was 
born, in 1711, a daug-hter Sarali, whose name, afterwards so 
distinguished through the lionors wliicli came to her son David 
Humphreys, tlie Derby diapter is proud to bear. 

Sarah Riggs became first the wife of Jcjhn Bowers, who died in 
1738. In tile same year her tw^o chiklren died, leaving her a 
childless widow. In 1739 slie married again, her second husband 
being the Rev. Daniel Humphreys. During nearly half a century 
of married life she was universally called Lady Humphreys, and 
lived at Uptown Derby until her death July 29, 1787. 

She was a woman of fine personal appearance, refined in mind 
and manner, and celebrated for her knowledge of Derby 
history. When the Rev. Daniel Humi:)hreys and his wife entered 
church on tin; Sabbath, the wdiole congregation rose and remained 
standing until tlu' minister had shown liis wife to her pew, 
ascended th(.' pulpit, laid aside his hat, and seated himself, 
when the congregation resumed their seats. The rectitude of 
their lives, their gracious manner and dignified appearance, made 
this customary mark of respect and deference especially appro- 
priate. 

The l\e\'. Daniel liumplirevs was the son of Deacon John, the 
grandson of Sergeant John and the great-grandson of Michael 
Humphreys, whose first appearance on American soil, so far as 
known, was at Windscjr, Conn., in 1643. The Rev. Daniel Hum- 
phreys was born in 1707, at Simsburv, Conn., graduated at Yale 
College in 1732, and became pastor of the First Church of Christ 
(Congregational) in Derby, Conn., in 1734. On Se]:)tember 16, 
1777, Rev. Daniel Humphreys tocjk the oath of fidelity to the 
United States. 

-Mr. Humphreys and Mrs. Humi)hreys both died in 1787, and 
oidy five weeks apart. Their gravestone in the old Uptown 
burying ground, now called the Colonial cemetery, bears this 
epitajjh : 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:\[ERICAX REVOLUTION. 

The Rev'd Daniel HuMrHKEVS died Sept. 2, 1787, in the 8i«'- 
vear of his age. For more than half a century he was the 
established minister of the first Society in this town. IMrs. 
S.\RAH Humphreys, the affectionate wife of his youth and the 
tender companion of his adv^anced age, died July 29, 1787, 
just five weeks before him. 

" The Seasons thus 
As ceaseless round a jarring world thev roll, 
Still find them happy and consenting spring 
Sheds her own rosy garland on their heads. 
Till evening comes at last serene and mild 
When after the long vernal day of life. 
Enamored more as more remembrance swells 
With many a proof of recollected love. 
Together down they sink in social sleep, 
Together freed their gentle spirits fly 
To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign." 






The children of the Rev. David and Sarah Riggs Humphreys 
were: Daniel, born in 1740; John, born in 1744; Elijah, born in 
1746 ; Sarah, born in 174S; David, born in 1752. 

Daniel was graduated at Vale College at the age of seventeen, 
and was a fine scholar. At the close of the Revolutionary war he 
settled at Portsmouth, N. H., and opened a law office. He was 
appointed United States Attornev for New Hampshire by President 
Washington, and remained in the office until his death. 

John was a member of the Committee of Inspection during the 
Revolution. He took the oath of fidelity to the new Republic in 
1778, filled the offices of town clerk and justice of the j^eace in 
Derbv, and was a representative of his town in the Legislature of 
Connecticut. 

Elijah was town clerk of Derby for many years. He served as 
major in the Revolutionary war, and was especially distinguished 
for his patriotism and zeal in the cause of liberty, having had 
three horses shot under him when on the battle field. He was 
also a member of the Order of the Cincinnati. He died of yellow 

* In compiling this sketch of Sarah Riggs Humphreys and of her children's 
services to their country, and of the incidents of their lives, the writer made free 
quotations from The History of the Town of Derby, Humphreys' (Genealogy, 
and Stiles' Ancient Windsor. 



214 'll'- I'Al'K'^-^' SAIXTS OF COXNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

fever on his way to tlic West Indies, in the fortietli year of his age, 
and was buried at Martinico. A stone bearing his name and 
recording the date of his birth and death stands near the burial 
place of his parents in the Colonial cemetery at Derby. 

Sarah, the only daughter of Rev. Daniel and Sarah Riggs 
Ilumphrevs, married tiie Rev. Samuel Mills, a Baptist clergyman. 
They were living in Fairlield, Conn., when Fairfield town was 
burned by the Tories on the yth July, 1779. The parsonage and 
the church in which the Rev. Samuel Mills had preached were 
burned to the ground, and Mrs. Mills fled to Derby on horseback, 
having jjlaced her best feather bed across the horse. It was 
probablv near the site of his sister's home in Fairfield that David 
Ilumpiirevs wrote his poem entitled tlie ''Burning of Fairfield, 
Conn." 

The rollowing is a brief extract from Colonel Humphreys' poem 
written soon after the event it describes : 

" Ye smoking ruins, marks of hostile ire, 

Yc ashes warm, which drink the tears that tiow. 
Ye desolated plains, my voice inspire, 
And give soft music to the song of woe. 

" How pleasant. Fairfield, on th' enraptur'd sight 
Rose thy tall spires, and op'd thy social halls ! 
llow oft m\' bosom beat with inire delight, 

At \onder spot where stands the darkened walls !" 

The Rev. Samitel Mills died in 1814, and his widcnv married 
again in 1819 when seventy-one years old. Mrs. Ann S. Ste})hens, 
a local historian and a friend of the familv, in a letter h)ng pre- 
served, gave the following descri])tion of tiie bride : " I remem- 
ber seeing her at the Colonel's rooms, dtiring the wedding 
festivities, in Iter bridal dress — a silver-gray pongee silk, trimmed 
fo the knees with narrow rows of black velvet ribbon, while 
her soft gray hair was stirmounted by a lace caj) brightened with 
pink ribbons;" and Derby history gives the following: "In 
l^ersonal a])pearance, style, and manners, she was a good illus- 
tration (d her honored mother, Ladv Humplirevs." She was, for 
the limes, highly educated, and pnl)lished a volume of [)oems. 




ILe ()rigiii;d In Mj.u^.u; Y;iJ<- tbilc^g-e : Kiisi-il hy (;, P.irkrj 



DAOD M'^MFlEIIfSEirS, M^JDo 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN RENOLUTION'. 215 

David Humplireys entered Yale College at the age of fifteen, 
and was graduated in 1771, in the time of President Daggett, and 
was a fellow student of Triunbull, Dwight, and Barlow. These 
four young Connecticut bards maintained honorable rank as schol- 
ars, and summoned to their use the charms of poetry to aid the 
progress of freedom, and to open and pave the pathwav of libertv. 
In his poem on the " Future Glory of the United States of 
America," Humphreys addressed liis three poet friends. 

At the commencement of the Revolution, David Humphreys 
was a resident of New Haven. He entered tlie armv as captain, 
was soon promoted to the rank of major in General Putnam's 
brigade, and was in the retreat from New York in August, 1776. 
Soon after he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Putnam, 
and in 1777 was commissioned brigade-major of the First Con- 
necticut regiment in the Hudson Highlands. Later he served as 
aide to General Greene. 

In 1780 he was appointed aide and secretarv to General Wash- 
ington, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and soon afterwards he 
j(jined General Washington's family, remaining with Washington 
until the close of the war. At the siege of Yorktown he held a sepa- 
rate command, and when Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the Amer- 
ican forces in 1781, Colcjnel Humphreys had the distinguished honor 
of receiving the colors, and, as a mark of approbation, was made 
the bearer of the same from the Commander-in-Chief to Congress, 
taking with him copies of the returns of prisoners, arms, ord- 
nance, and twenty-five stands of the surrendered colors, carrying 
also to Congress a letter from Washington commending the 
bearer to the consideration of that honorable body. 

On November 7th, 1781, it was "Resolved, that an elegant 
sword be presented, in the name of the United States in Congress 
assembled, to Colonel Humphreys, Aid-de-Camp to General 
Washington, to whose care the standards, taken on the capitula- 
tion of York, were committed, as a testimonv of their opinion of 
his fidelitv and abilitv ; and that the Board of War take order 
therein." In the year 1786 this resolution was carried into effect, 
and the sword was presented to Colonel Humphreys by General 
Knox, then Secretarv of War, accompanied bv a highly compli- 
mentary letter. 



2l6 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

I'ndor the date of Mav, 17S2, we find the names of D. Hum- 
phreys, A.D.C., and Jonathan Trumbull, Jun., Secretary, officially 
endorsed upon a copv of General Washington's reply of declina- 
tion and disapproval to the letter of Colonel Niccola, in wliich 
the latter again proposes the establishment of a kingdom in 
America, and favors the bestowal of the title of King upon the 
illustrious Commander-in-Chief of the American armies. 

A few vears later the medals bestowed by Congress upon Gen- 
eral Washington in commemoration of the evacuation of Boston 
bv tlie Hritisii armv, and the medal awarded to General Gates for 
the Convention at Saratoga, and to General Greene for bravery at 
the battle of Eutaw Springs, were executed by the first artists at 
Paris under the direction of Colonel Ilumplireys. 

The preliminaries of peace between the United States and Great 
Britain having been settled in November, 1782, the operations of 
the army were soon suspended, but the Commander-in-Chief 
remained with the northern division until he resigned his commis- 
sion at Annapolis, in December, 1783, being attended on that 
memorable occasion by Colonel Humphreys, who, at General 
Washington's special request, accompanied him from Annapolis 
to Mount Vernon. 

In May, 1784, Colonel Humphreys was appointed by Congress 
secretary to the "commission for negotiating treaties of commerce 
with foreign powers," the commissioners being John Adams, 
then Minister to Holland, Benjamin Franklin, then Minister to 
France, and Thomas -Jefferson, whom he accompanied to Europe 
in July of the same year. Among tlie ICuropeans serving on tlie 
commission was General Kosciusko. Soon after the expiration 
of the two-years term of the commission. Colonel Humphreys 
ri-turned to America and at once visited General Wasiiington at 
.^lount X'ernon. 

In the autumn of 1786 Colonel 1 1 uiii[)hreys was elected to 
represent Derby in the Connecticut Legislature, and was 
appointed by that body to the command of the Connecticut 
Division of the Third United States Infantry, whose services were 
needed to suppress Shay's Rebellion. On receiving his commis- 
sion Colonel Humphreys fixed upon Hartft)rd as his headquarters, 
but, as the insurrection was suppressed earlv in the following 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 21/ 

year, his time of service was short. On April 21, 1787, he was 
again invited to the home of Washington. 

In the fall of 1789 he received the appointment of Minister to 
Portugal, at which jiost he was the first American to represent his 
country, and he continued to be a resident of Portugal for 
several years as the American diplomat. After his return to 
Portugal from a visit to the United States, he was successful in 
making treaties with Algiers and Tripoli — treaties which were 
made for the purpose of securing the liberation of manv American 
citizens held at that time in captivitv, and of guarding our com- 
merce from future spoliations. In 1797 Colonel Humphreys was 
transferred to the court of Madrid, where he continued to reside 
until 1802, when he returned to his native land. 

He married in Lisbon, in 1797, Ann Francis Bulkley who is 
described as a lady of much refinement and who was a daughter 
of John Bulkley. an English banker residing in Lisbon. 

In a letter dated at Philadelphia 12th June, 1796, President 
W^ashington, not knowing of the prospective marriage of his 
former aide, thus addresses Colonel Humphrevs : 

" Whenever you shall think, with the poet or philosopher, that 
'the post of honor is a private station,' and may be disposed to 
enjov yourself in mv shades — I do not mean the shades below 
where, if you put it off long, I may be reclining — I can only 
repeat, that you will meet with the same cordial reception at 
Mount Vernon that vou have alwavs found at that place ; and 
that I am and alwavs shall be. 

Your sincere friend. 

And affectionate servant, 

Geo. Washington." 

Under date. Mount Vernon, 26 June, 1797, Washington, after 
having received an announcement of the wedding, again writes to 
Colonel Humphreys : 

" I am clearlv in sentiment with you, that every man who is in 
the vigour of life, ought to serve his country in whatsoever line it 
requires, and he is fit for ; it was not my intention, therefore, to 
persuade you to withdraw your services, whilst inclination and 
the calls of your country demanded your services ; but the desire 
of a companion in my latter days, in whom I could confide, might 



2l8 Till' I'ATRO.V SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

have induced me to express myself too strongly on the occasion. 
The chant^e, however, which l" presume has taken place ere this, 
in your domestic concerns, would of itself have annihilated every 
hope of havino^ you as an inmate, if the circumstance had been 
known at the time. 

On this event, which I persuade myself will be fortunate and 
happv for you, I offer my congratulations with all sincerity and 
warmth vou can desire ; and if ever you should bring Mrs. Hum- 
phreys to the United States, no roof will afford her and you a 
more welcome reception than this, while we are inhabitants of it." 

Upon the opening of the war of 1812 Colonel Humphreys 
called a public meeting in Derby, delivered an ehxpient oration, 
and called for volunteers. A company, then called troopers 
(now cavalry), with Colonel Humphreys as its first ofificer, was 
enlisted, and became a i)art of the regular Connecticut contingent. 
Colonel Hum|)hreys was soon after appointed brigadier-general 
qf the state militia, his commission being dated June i, 1813, and 
signed bv John Cotton Smith, then (rovernor of Connecticut — 
hence the title of general, bv which Colonel Humphreys was 
commonly known. 

General Hunn)hrevs was again a representative from Derbv in 
the State Legislature in 181 2, 1813, and 18 14, when his public career 
seems to have terminated. He was associated, as member or 
fellow, with several literary institutions, both in this countrv and 
Europe, and received from three American colleges the honorarv 
degree of Doctor of Laws. lie died in New Haven, Februarv 21, 
1818, aged sixty-five years, and was buried in the ancient New 
Haven cemetery, where a monument was erected to his memorv, 
which is a granite obelisk about twelve feet in height, bearing an 
inscription in Latin, which translated is as follows: 

" David HuMrnKKVs, Doctor of Laws; IMeml)er of tlie 
Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, Massachusetts 
and Connecticut ; of liie Bath (Agricultural) Society ; 
and of the Royal Society of London. 
Fired with the love of country and liberty, he conse- 
crated his youth wholly to the service of the Repub- 
lic which he defended by his arms, aided bv his 
counsels, adorned by his learning, and preserved in 
harmony with Foreign nations. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AiNIKRICAN RE\OLUTIOX. 219 

" In the field he was companion and aide of the great 
Washington, a colonel in the army of his country, 
and commander of the Veteran Volunteers of Con- 
necticut. He went as Ambassador to the courts of 
Portugal and Spain, and returning, enriched his land 
with the true golden fleece. He was a distinguished 
Historian and Poet ; a model and Patron of Science 
and of the ornamental and useful arts. After a full 
discharge of every duty, and a life well spent, he 
died on the 21st day of February, 1818, aged 65 
j'ears." 

Colonel Humphreys imported, in 1802, one hundred vSpanish 
merino sheep. Great excitement was occasioned in Derby when 
the sheep arrived, and tliousands flocked to see tliem. Colonel 
Hvimphreys discouraged speculation from the first — he even sold 
a part of his flock at one hundred dollars per head, a price which 
it is said was less than the cost, and thus he distributed this rare 
breed of sheep among the most enterprising farmers. His advice 
concerning speculation was unheeded, however, and soon the 
price rose to four hundred dollars, mounting from that to one 
thousand, fifteen hundred, and two thousand dollars per head. A 
few were sold as high as twenty-five hundred and three thousand 
dollars a piece. 

In 1803 he began his career as a manufacturer. Having pur- 
ciiased land on the Naugatuck river at the falls, he erected two 
fulling mills and a clothier's shop, and the place was named in 
honor of him, Humphreysville (now Seymour). Colonel Hum- 
phreys took special interest in the apprentice boys in the factory, 
seventy-three of whom were from the New York almshouse, and 
others from neighboring towns and villages. He established 
evening and Sunday schools for them, with competent teachers, 
and uniformed the boys, at no light expense, as a militia company, 
drilling them himself. His wife made and presented to the com- 
pany a beautifully embroidered silk flag. 

Colonel Humphreys succeeded so well in the production of 
fine broadcloth, that he had the reputation of making the best 
in America. In November, 1808, Tliomas Jefferson, then Presi- 
dent of the United States, desiring to appear on New Year's day 
at the White House in a suit of American manufacture, sent to 



220 TIIF. PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

the collector of customs at New Haven, this order: "Homespun 
is become the spirit of the times. I thinl<: it an useful one and a 
duty to encourage it by example. The best fine cloth in the 
L'nited States, I am told, is at the manufactory of Colonel Hum- 
phreys. Send enough for a suit." 

The Philadelphia Domestic Society, in 1808-9, offered a premium 
of fiftv dollars for the best piece of broadcloth twenty yards long 
and six quarters wide. Colonel Humphreys wove the piece and 
took the prize. Coats were made therefrom for Presidents Jeffer- 
son and Madison. The ])rice of this cloth was twelve dollars per 
yard. 

Mrs. Ann S. Stephens writes of him near the close of his life as 
follows : '• I remember him in a blue coat with large gold buttons, 
a buff vest, and laced ruffles around his wrists and in his bosom. 
His complexion was soft and blooming like a child, and his gray 
hair, swept back from his forehead, was gathered in a cue behind 
and tied with a black or red ribbon." 

Born on the ancestral homestead and following the traditions 
of her house, Saraii Riggs Humphreys might well be a mother of 
heroes as she was a daughter of heroes, and we may be sure that 
the patriotic blood of her ancestors stirred in her as she gave her 
sons to the struggle for liberty. The same spirit of liberty that 
brought the first Edward Riggs to New England, and prompted 
the second to succor tlie Refugees, influenced the Rev. Daniel and 
Sarah Riggs Humphreys to free their two slaves in 1781. 

At the close of the Revolution Sarah Riggs Humphreys had 
reason to bow in her worship with luimilitv and gratitude for the 
honors which, following the fortunes of war, were accorded to her 
sons. And in her heart as in the heart of many mothers, who 
received their sons safely back from battle fields, the fire of patri- 
otism glowed with a radiance known onlv to those who have made 
similar sacrifices for home and country. 

_/(/;/(■ dcForcst Sluiton. 
Nancy O. Phillips. 

(MUS. A. \V. I'HlLLirS.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AJNIERICAN REVOLUTION. 




THE COLONIAL CEMETERY, DERBY. 
(Restored by the Sarah Riggs Iluniphreys Chapter.) 

Sarah Riggs Humphreys was buried in the old Hillside cemetery 
in Uptown Derby, which, after years of neglect, has been restored 
by the chapter which bears her name. The stone which marks 
the resting place of the Reverend Daniel Humphreys and of his 
wife, Sarah Riggs Humphreys, may be seen in the illustration and 
is the fifth stone from the right hand margin — a wide double stone. 

One of the oldest stones in the cemetery is the one erected to the 
memorv of the Reverend John Bowers, the original and restored 
portions of which may be seen in the illustration (page 222) 
The original stone was discovered more than a foot below the sur- 
face of the ground when the cemetery was graded, though previous 
search for it had been made in vain. The inscription on the 
upper part mav easilv be read in the illustration, and is copied 
from the original stone which, imbedded in the new block of 
granite, forms a part of the base of the entire stone. 



222 THE I'ATROX SAINTS OF COXXKCTICUT CIIAl'TERS 

Tlie oldest son of tlic Revereiul John Bowers, Nathaniel, was 
the father of Sarah Rii>;i;s's first husband, John Bowers, who died 
in ,7,8— in tlie same year with their two only children. 

The Reverend John Bowers was the lirst minister in Derby, 
havint;- come to the ])lantation of Paugassett (Derby), in 1673, 




SIONK r.RKCTEn TO THE MEMORY OF KEY. JOHN ISOWEKS. 



(Colonial Ccmeleiv, Derby. 



wlien onlv twelve of the original proprietors of the plantation 
liad moved there — all having been members, until this time, of the 
< luirch at Milford. 

John Bowers was born in England in 1629 and was the st)n of 
(ieorge and liarbara Bowers, who were residents cjf Plymouth, 
-Mass., in \()yj. He graduated at i larvard College in 1646, and was 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN' REVOLUTION. 223 

a school-master in Plymouth in 1653, when Governor Eaton in- 
vited him to tlie new colony of New Haven "to follow the same 
business." Before coming to Derby lie had been a resident of 
New Haven, Guilford, and Branford, and in 1673 he remtned to the 
frontier with his family to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ 
in the wilderness. Here on the frontier he filled the offices of 
pieacher, schoolmaster, and town clerk — each in a manner accept- 
able to the inhabitants of tlie plantation of Paugassett. 

His will, recorded in Derby, bears the date January 8, 1685, and 
his death occurred on June 14, 16S7. 

Maria n\ Pi 11 new 

(MRS. CHA-i. II. I'IN'NRV.) 




CO.MMOUOKK ISAAC 1111,1., A llRANDi^UN OK KLIZAHETII CLAKKK HULL. 

Commander of the frigate Constilution in lier fanious viLlory over tlio (iucrriere. 

•(Copied from a nainling by Gilbert Stuart, in the custody of Hostonian Society, owned by Mr. 
Farl<er C. Chandler of Hoston.) 



ELIZABETH CLARKE HULL 




P.IZABETH CLARKE HULL was descended from 
some of the choicest of the " sifted grain," which, so 
freely sowed in the desolate wilderness, ripened into 
the rich harvest of New England. 

She was born in Lyme, Connecticut, Sept. 24, 1732. Her father, 
William Clarke, was born June 7, 16S2, and married Hannah Peck 
of New Haven. 

Her grandfather, William Clarke, was born in 1639. His first 
wife was Sarah Wolcott of Plymouth, Mass., whom he married in 
1659, and who was killed by the bidians, J^L^rch 12, 1676 ; he mar- 
ried second, in 1678, Hannah Griswold, daughter of I^ieutenant 
Francis Griswold, a nephew of Matthew, who was the ancestor of 
the Governors, Matthew and Roger Griswold. Hannah (Gris- 
wold) Clarke died in 1687 at the age of twenty-nine and was 
interred on Burying Hill, Plymouth. 

The great-grandfather of Elizabeth Clarke Hull was Thomas 
Clarke, by accepted tradition the Mate of the ^Lvyfhjwer and in 
whose honor Clarke's Lsland received its name. 

Hannah Peck Clarke, the mother of Elizabeth Clarke, was a 
direct descendant of William Peck of New Haven, who came from 
England probably in the ship '' Hector," and was the com- 
panion of Governor Eaton, Governor Hopkins, Rev. John Daven- 
port, and the Earl of Marlborough's son. 

Hannah Peck's line of descent is as follows : William Peck of 
New Haven; his son Joseph Peck, who married Sarah Parker; 

their son Joseph, Jr., who married Susannah ; their daughter, 

Hannah Peck, who married William Clarke. 

In 1735 William Clarke, father of Elizabeth Clarke Hull, 
removed from Lyme to Derby, where he became identified with 
the town as a merchant and valuable citizen. The tombstone of 
his wife, Hannah, bears this remarkable record : 
15 



226 THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Mrs. Hannah Clark 
died Sept. iSoi, aged 91. 
Her lineal descendants at the 
time of lier death were 333, 
viz. 10 children 62 grand children 
242 great grand children 
19 great great grand children. 
During her long life her company 
was the delight of her numerous 
friends and acquaintances. 
Having faithfully performed the 
duties of life and being deeply 
impressed with the reality 
and importance of religion 
she died as she had lived 
satisfied and happy. 

Eli/;il)cth was the eldest of the ten children of William and Han- 
nah dark. At the age of seventeen she married her neighbor, 
Captain Josepli Hull, who during an active and honorable career 
was closely identified with the best interests of his native town, 
and was its rei)resentati\e many years in the General Assembly 
of Connecticut. 

Joseph Hull, 3d, the husband of Elizabeth Clarke Hull, was the 
son of Josepli Hull, 2(1, and of Sarah his wife; a grandson of 
Capt. Josepli Hull and ')f Mary Nichols (a daughter of Isaac 
Nichols of Fairfield) ; a great-grandson of Doctor John Hull; and 
a great-great-grandson of Richard Hull the emigrant who came 
fnjin Derbyshire, England, who was made a freeman at Dorches- 
ter, Mass., in April, 1634, and removed to New Haven, Conn., in 
1639. 

Doctor John llull had received a grant oi land in Derby in 
1668, and had removed his family thither from Stratford in 1675. 
In 1687 he settled in Wallingford, leaving his large proj^jcrty in 
Derby to his sons, John and Joseph. 

The family of Capt. Joseph Hull, 3d, and of Elizabeth, his wife, 
daughter of William Clarke of Derby, consisted of six sons and 
two daugiiters, whose names and birth dates are thus recorded on 
the Derbv town books : 



DAUGHTERS OF THE a:\IERICAN RENOLUTION. 227 

1. Joseph, b. Oct. 27, 1750, at >< an hour after three of the clock in tlie morn- 

ing. 

2. William, b. June 27, 17153, at ^ an hour past five o'clock in the morning. 

3. Samuel, b. Aug. 5, 1755, at 7 o'clock in the afternoon. 

4. Elizabeth, b. Jan. 20, 1759, at 3 of the clock in the morning. 

5. Isaac, b. Dec. 28, 1760, at 6 of the clock in the morning. 
().. David, b. Mar. 27, 1765. 

7. Sarah, b. Jan. 6, 1769. 

8. Levi, b. Apr. 29, 1771. 

When the threatening clouds of the Revolution burst, Capt. 
Joseph Hull, at the first call for troops, went to New York, doing 
noble service, but on his return home was seized with a sudden 
illness that ended his useful life in September, 1775. His youngest 
son, Levi, a boy of four years, followed him three weeks later. The 
broken family circle was soon still more widely severed by the 
departure of the three older sons for active service in the war. 

Joseph, the eldest, was twenty-five years old when the war 
opened, and was in the service during the entire war of tlie Revo- 
lution. He entered the army as lieutenant of artillery, leaving 
his family of three little sons, the second of whom, Isaac (born the 
ninth of March, 1773), was destined to become the famous com- 
mander of the Constitution. Joseph's wife, Sarah Bennett, was 
the daughter of Deacon Daniel Bennett who, a few years later, 
entertained at breakfast Lafayette and his officers on their journey 
frotn Rhode Island to join Washington in the Highlands. 

In the defense of Fort Washington Lieut. Joseph Hull fought 
with distinguished bravery, but was taken prisoner and confined 
two years, suffering great hardships. In 1778 he was exchanged, 
and returned, with zeal unquenched, to his country's service. 

Many are the stories related of his skill and daring Avhen he 
was in command of a flotilla of boats on the Sound. On one 
occasion a British armed schooner was lying in the Sound, being 
engaged in transporting provisions from tiie country to New 
York, where the British army was then stationed .... Lieuten- 
ant Hull proposed to some of his companions of the town of 

Derby to go and capture the schooner On the evening 

appointed, twenty men, placing themselves under his command, 
embarked in a large boat, similar to those used in carrying wood 
to the city of New York. The men lay concealed in the bottom 



228 Tin: I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

of the boat and. the dusk of the cveniniy;- favoriny- the deception, 
the boat had the appearance (jf being loaded witli wood. As they 
approached the British vessel, the sentinel on deck hailed them. 
l.iriii. 11 nil. who was steerino-, answered the call, continuing his 




SAKAH FULl.RR UUI-L, 

Wifeof (ien. William Hull. 

(P'rum a p!ioti><.'ra|)li of the original pastel drawn by Smibert about 17S3, ownc.l by Mrs, Sarah 
l'"ullL'r Read, Hrookline, Mass.) 

course till (piite near the vessel Avithout exciting suspicion, when, 
l»y a sudden nnnement, he drew close along side of her. His men 

being well trained, sprang to her deck with great celerity 

I he commander of the schooner was sleeping below and. aroused 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A^IERICAX REVOLUTION. 



229 



by tlie firing of the sentinel, lie made an attempt to gain tlie deck 
but was instantly shot dead. The Americans immediately fastened 
doA\n the hatches, took possession of the vessel, and conducted 
her in triumph up to Derby. 




GEX. WILLIAM HL^LL AT TIME OF RE\'OLUTIO.\. 

(From a photograph of the original pastel drawn by Sniibert about 1785, owned by Mrs. Sarah 
Fuller Read, Brool<line, Mass.) 



That he possessed rare presence of mind and fearlessness is 
evident from the following anecdote : Once Avhen on his way 
to New Haven, as he came to the top of the hill in West Haven, he 
saw some British soldiers advancino- towards hi;n. It was too 



230 Till-: l-AIKO.\ SAIXTS OF CON xXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

late to retreat, and he at once resorted to a ruse. Turning in his 
saddle, he motioned as if for his company to hasten forward, then 
himself riding forward he demanded a surrender. The Redcoats 
believing the enemy close at hand in large numbers, and that 
resistance would be unavailing, delivered up their swords.* 

William, tlie second son of Elizabeth Clarke Hull, had gradu- 
ated from Yale in 1773, a classmate and friend of Nathan Hale. 
In deference to the fond wish of his father and mother that he 
should become a clergyman, he began the study of theology, but 
a year's trial having proved that he had a more decided taste for 
the law, he entered the celebrated Law School in Litchfield, Conn., 
and was admitted to the bar in 1775.! 

He was chosen captain of the first company organized in 
Derby, which he hastily drilled, and in command of which he 
accompanied tlie Connecticut regiment that marched to Cam- 
bridge to meet Washington. His career throughout the Revolu- 
tion Avas one of steady progress in usefulness and honor. He 
crossed the Delaware with Washington and helped to win the vic- 
tories of Trenton and Princeton, after which he was rewarded by 
promotion to the rank of major. At Saratoga he was engaged 
in both battles, and received tiie thanks of Congress for his 
bravery. He passed the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge in 
the midst of the extreme wretchedness of the army where, under 
circumstances of intense suffering, he was ordered on one occa- 
sion to pursue a foraging partv of the British. 

\\\ one of his letters he thus describes the log huts which were 
their only shelter during that winter of misery. "The hut we 
occupied consisted of one room. This was dining room, parlor, 
kitchen, and hall. On one side were shelves for our books (hav- 
ing been so ffjrtunate as to purchase a part of a circulating 
library that had been brought from Philadelphia) ; on another, 

* History of Derby. 

f Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of Gen. William Hull, by Mrs. Maria 
Campbell. 

The Litchfield Law School was founded in 17S4. Private instruction in law 
had been j^iven there several years previous to the formal founding of the 
school. William Hull was a member of these private classes, hence the state- 
ment of his daughter, Mrs. Campbell, that he entered the Law School in 
Litchfield. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



!3I 



Stood a row of Derby cheeses sent from Connecticut by my 
mother — a luxury of which tlie camp could rarely boast and with 
which visitors were often regaled." 

Unfortunately the early correspondence of Captain William 
Hull was accidentallv destroyed bv fire. The above instance is 




REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, D.D. 

doubtless but one of many thoughtful acts of his mother, Elizabeth 
Clarke Hull, towards relieving the hardships of the soldiers, 
which his correspondence might have revealed. At this time 
two of her sons were with the destitute army, and one, a prisoner 
in the hands of the enemv. 



2^2 Til!': PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Wlien Trvon was raiding and burning the Connecticut towns 
on the Sound, with the intention of drawing Washington from his 
strong position in tlie Highhinds of the Hudson, the storming of 
Stony Point was ordered l)y Washington — as a counter checlc to 
Trvon, and was successfully carried to completion by Mad 
Anthony Wayne. For bravery in this attack, called "one of the 
most brilliant of the Revolution," Major Hull was promoted to 
the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

I'nder the direction of Baron Steuben, Colonel Hull became 
one of the most able masters of the army in military drill, 
having received the appointment t)f deputy inspector ; Baron 
Steuben himself being Inspector-General of the army. So yalu- 
able did Colonel Hull become in this department that the more 
distinguished position cjf aide to Washington was declined by 
him in deference to ihe request of Baron Steuben, wdio deemed 
the services of Col. Hull as Deputy-Inspector too important to be 
lost to the army. Loyally declining the high honor for himself. 
Colonel Hull recommended his life-long friend and townsman, 
David Humphreys, who received the appointment. 

In February, 1781, Colonel Hull applied for leave of absence 
for the first time in six years, and went directly to Boston where 
he was married to Sarah Fuller, the beautiful daughter of Judge 
Fuller of Newton. His bride returned with him to the army. 

Colonel Hull was present at the battles of Long Island, White 
Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Ticonderoga, vStillwater, Saratoga, 
Monmouth, and Stony Point. He himself commanded an expedi- 
tion against Morrisania, for the success of which he receiyed the 
thanks of Washington and of Congress. When the army was 
disbanded at the close of the Revolution, Colonel Hull was 
appointed by Washington Lieutenant-Colonel of the one regiment 
of infantry retained, and was stationed at West Point, during the 
winter of 1783-4. The Order of the Cincinnati was founded at 
this time, Colonel Hull being one of the originators and a dele- 
gate to the first ccnivention. held in Philadelphia in May, 1784. 

One of the closing scenes of the Revolution was the with- 
drawal of the British army from the jiosts hnig occupied by them 
in Xcw York City. As they withdrew Washington advanced 
and took possession of the posts, escorted by Colonel Hull with 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A]\IERICAX REVOLUTION. 233 

his light infantry — the perfect discipline of his troops calling 
forth words of commendation from the Commandcr-in-CInef. 

The third son of Elizabeth Clarke Hull, Samuel, served in the 
Revolution with the rank of lieutenant. The fourth son, Isaac, 
was too voung to enlist in the war of the Revolution, but proved 
his loyaltv in 1812, when he was compelled to leave his home in 




MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER, U. S. A. 

Canada and return to the States, because of his openly avowed 
devotion to his country. 

For the heroism, patriotism, and loyalty of the sons and grand- 
sons and later descendants of Elizabeth Clarke Hull, her native 
town would honor her, and lier name has therefore been given to 
the Chapter in Ansonia, which in Revolutionary days was a part 
of the old town of Derbv. 



234 THE PATROX SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Amon^ her grandsons are the honored names of Commodore 
Isaac Hull, Commander of the frigate Constitution, who when a 
boy of ten was taken into the family of Col. William Hull and 
brought up as his ovvmi son. 

Capt. Abraham Fuller Hull, the only son of Col. William 
Hull, fell at the head of his company at the battle of Lundy's 
Lane. Le\i Hull, another grandson of Elizabeth Clarke Hull, 
was aide to Gen. William Henry Harrison. 

In the next generation of descendants are Dr. James Freeman 
Clarke, the eminent divine, and his brother, Mr. Samuel C. 
Clarke, also of literary accomplishments; Commodore Joseph 
Hull ; Dr. Francis Miller McLellan, a surgeon in the Civil War, 
and Isaac Hull McLellan, poet and author, a faithful observer of 
the habits of wild fowl and fishes of America, who died in 1899 at 
Greenport, Long Island, in his ninety-third year. 

Present day descendants of Elizabeth Clarke Hull are Major- 
General Joseph Wheeler of Alabama, hero of the Spanish war, 
wliose loyalty, counsel, and activity proved an inspiration to the 
army, alleviated the sufferings of the soldiers at Montauk, and 
awakened the admiration and gratitude of the nation. 

Miss Annie Wheeler,* true to the instinct inherited from genera- 
tions of soldiers, went as a nurse to Santiago with her father. 
General Wheeler, and her two brotiiers, and at Montauk served 
nobly in the detenticMi lu)si)ital. Returning to New York she 
took a course in a training school for nurses and then accompanied 
lier father to the Philippines. Two other daughters of General 
Wheeler also served in the hospitals during the Spanish war and 
in the Philippines. 

Personal reminiscences of Elizabeth Clarke Hull represent her as 
commanding in height but of slender build, in manner very attract- 
ive, and of a refined nature ; in disposition generous and social. 
Beloved by her friends, she in turn held them in high esteem. 
Very energetic and spirited she is said to have been by the few 
who remember her in her old age. The varied experiences of an 

* Miss Annie Wheeler is a member of the Elizabeth Clarke Hull Chapter of 
Ansonia. At the Congress of the D. A. R. in Washington, D. C, she received 
the largest vote for vice-president general. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



235 



eventful life she bore with courage and cheerfulness during 
almost a century of existence. 

After the enlistment of her elder sons in the army of the Revo- 
lution, she married, October 14, 1776, Sergeant Joseph Tomlinson 
of Derbv, and lived for manv vears on Great Hill. 




GEN. WILLIAM HULL. 

(From an engraving taken from a painting by Rembrandt I'eale, owned by Mrs. Sterling Smith, 

Brooklyn, N. Y.) 

After the death of Mr. Tomlinson she was married on Feb. 13, 
1793, to Captain Joseph Osborne of Oxford, Conn., a prominent 
man, much respected in the community. He lived only four 
years after this marriage, and his widow subsequently became 



236 TIIK PATRON SAIX'IS OF COX XECTICL'T CIIAl'TERS 

tlie wife of Capt. James Masters of Schaghticoke, New York, who 
drove over the hills for her with a coach and six horses, making 
a great sensation ahjng tiic route. 

Slie resided near All)anv until the deatli of her fourth husband, 
when she returned t(j the home of her son, Dr. David Hull of 
Fairfield, Conn., a distinguished physician, with whom she re- 
mained until she was ninety years of age. At her request she was 
then taken bv her sons. General Hull and Dr. David Hull, to the 
home of her favorite grandson, Alfred Hull, on Great Hill in 
Derby, where the closing years of her life were passed amid 
familiar scenes. 

After the complete vindication of her son, General William 
Hull, of the accusations brought against him after the War of 
iS[2, his first act was to pav a visit to his mother and his native 
town, where he was received with gratifying honor. 

His mother did not long survive this visit, and on Feb. 11, 1826, 
when ninetv-four years of age, Elizabeth Clarke Hull died and 
was laid to rest by the side of her first husband, Joseph Hull. 



In 17S6 Colonel Hull's rei,nment disbanded and he removed to Newton, 
Mass., where he practised law and held many offices of yjublic trust. 

He was active in suppressing Shay's Rebellion and was an ardent supporter 
of the Federal Constitution. 

In 17S7 he was appointed to the command of the first brigade of the tliird 
division of the Massachusetts militia, and in 1789 he succeeded General Lincoln 
as commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery. In Jan., 1793, Colonel 
Hull was appointed a commissioner to arrange with the British Government a 
treat)" with the Indians in the West, with whom the United States was then at 
war. 

The winter and spring of 1798-9 he spent in London and France. Shortly 
after his return he was appointed ludge of the Court of Common Pleas of 
Massachusetts. He was annually elected Senator to the legislature of Massa- 
ciuisctls until 1805, when he was appointed by Congress Gt)vernor of Michigan 
Territory for a term of three years, and was reappointed for two succeeding 
terms. 

Me also held the office of Indian Agent, a position involving great rcspon- 
sibilily. 

In February, 1812, war with Great Britain threatening, he was urged by 
President Madison to accept the appointment of Brigadier-General of the army 



DAUGHTERS OF Til!': A^IF.RICAX RE\"()LrTI()X. 237 

of the Northwest. He was then sg years old. At tirst he firmlv declined, but 
influenced by the pressure of his friends in Wasliington, his desire to protect 
the people of Michigan, and the coniidence of an over-trusting nature, he 
yielded, relying upon the Government to furnish the necessarv troops. Arriv 
ing at Detroit, he found himself surrounded by British regulars and hostile 
Indians, the lake in full possession of the enemy, and all supplies cut off. No 
alternative remained but surrender or ultimate massacre b}' the Indians. For 
this act he was tried by court martial and condemned to death, but immediatelv 
pardoned by President Madison because of his faithful services during the 
Revolution. 

For twelve years access to the records of the War Department was denietl 
him, his own papers having Ijeen burned in transportation from Detroit to 
Buffalo, and he lived under a cloud of undeserved reproach. 

When John C. Calhoun became Secretary of War, he gave General Hull per- 
mission to make use of any papers in the government archives. General Hull 
immediatel}' prepared a vindication which was published in 1S34 in the Ameri- 
can Statesman, a Boston paper, and also in a book written by (icneral Hidl 
entitled " Memoirs of the Campaign of 1812." It was accepted liy the thought- 
ful public as a complete refutation of the charges which had l)een brought 
against him. 

In 184S a defense of General Hull for the surrender of Detroit was published 
by Rev. Dr. James Freeman Clarke, his grandson. Histories have liecn slow in 
doing justice to his memorv, but Jared Sparks, Benson J. Lossing, Dr. John 
Fiske, and many reliable histori.rns of to-day are among his defenders. 

Alary Josephiiic Clark. 



The Authorities used in compiling this sketch were ; 
Ilistoiy of Derby, pp. 176, 575, 577, 735. 
Connecticut Men in the Revolution. 
Memoirs of the Campaign of iSi2. By William Hull. 
The Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull. By 

Mrs. Maria Campbell. 
Hull Genealogv. By Samuel C. Clarke. 




THE COAT OF ARMS liELON'GING TO GENERAL NOAH PHELPS. 
(Siiusbury.) 



ABIGAIL PHELPS 

Mbosc Zbxcc Scne Served m tbc IRcvolutiou 
NOAH PHELPS 

Coloih'l Coiifiiiciital Aniiy 

ELISHA PHELPS 

Coiiiiiitssjiy-Giiii'ra/ Coiitiiwiital .4nin' 

DAVID PHELPS 

explain Coiuiectliitl Mtlitia 



ABIGAIL PHELPS CHAPTER 
SIMSBURY 






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-3 ^ ' 



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>>^ o 
t> « l_J 

O 3 " £J «^ 



P V 



3 s* 






t: s^ 



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e 

C 5-» I 

u s f 



.2 "sC'S <=■ - 



3 
O 






ABIGAIL PHELPS 




HE name of Abigail Phelps was chosen to designate 
the Simsbiiry Chapter of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution for the following reasons : 
twenty-one members of the chapter are the lineal 
descendants of Abigail Phelps, nine are related to her collater- 
ally, and she was the mother of three distinguished officers in the 
war of the American Revolution. 

Abigail Pettibone Phelps was a descendant of John Pettibone, 
who was born in Wales about 1633. Early in life John Pettibone 
came to this country and became the founder of the Pettibone 
family in America. He was in Windsor previous to 1664, for, 
according to the records, he married Sarah, daughter of Begat 
Eggleston of Windsor, February i6th, of the year 1664, and he is 
mentioned in 1667 among those to whom land was granted in 
Massacoe (as Simsbury was then called), so that he probably came 
to Simsbury soon after his marriage. 

John and Sarah Pettibone had nine children. The oldest son, 
John Pettibone, Jr., married Mary, daughter of Samuel Bissell of 
Windsor, and they had six children, of Avhom Abigail, born in 
Simsbury, April 22d, 1706, was the fifth. According to tradition, 
Abigail Pettibone, the subject of this sketch, was tall and un- 
usually handsome, and as she also possessed gracious and gentle 
manners, with great strength of character, she was a suitable mate 
for Lieutenant David Phelps, who became her husband. There 
was an especial fitness in this union, as Abigail Pettibone herself 
came from an eminently patriotic family, seventeen Pettibones 
having gone from the town of Simsbury to the war of the 
American Revolution. 
16 



^42 



I 111'; r.xiKoX SAIXTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Al)iy;ail Pettibone \vas married April 25, 1731, to Lieutenant 
David Phelps, who later did good service for his country in the 
French and Indian war. His commission, dated May 28, 1756, is 
still in the possession of one of his descendants.* 

Lieutenant David Phelps was a descendant of William Phelps 
who, with his brother George, founded the Connecticut branch of 
the Phelps family. They were born in or near the historic town 
of Tewkesburv. Kngland, and embarked for this country March 




HOME OK MAJOR GENKKAL .NOAll riIELl'S.| 

Son of Abigail Phelps. 

(Probably the home of .\bigail Phelps. Originally an old fori. Built about 1717. 

30, 1630, in the ship "Mary and Jolm." They settled first at 
Dorchester, Mass., and later removed to Windsor, Conn. William 
Phelps soon became a man of influence in the Connecticut 
Colony, and the records show that he held many positions of trust 
and responsibility. His son Joseph was among the first who 
received grants of land in Massacoe (Simsbury). He was married 
September 20, 1660, to Hannah Newton. Their son, Joseph 

* Dr. Henry Kno, of Saugatiick, Connecticut. See page 240. 
+ The home of .Mrs. Cliaiincev Evelyn Eno, a great-granddaugliter of Gen. 
Noah Phelps. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AAIERICAX REVOLUTION. 243 

Phelps, Jr., represented the town of Simsbury in the General 
Assembly during twenty-eight sessions ; Joseph, Jr., was also 
Justice of the Peace twenty-one years. His third wife was Marv, 
a daughter of Richard Case, and Lieutenant David Phelps, the 
husband of Abigail Pettibone, was the youngest son of this 
marriase. 




COLONEL NOAH AMHERST PHELPS. 
(Son of General Noah Phelps. Grandson of Abigail Phelps.) 

David and Abigail Pettibone Phelps had three sons and six 
daughters. One of their daughters Rachel, who is referred to in 
"The Humphreys Family in America" as a "very superior 
woman," married the Hon. Daniel Humphreys, who was promi- 
nent in the affairs of the town of Simsbury, and a man who 
wielded a strong personal influence — always for the right. He 
was a member of the Legislature for several years, and both he 
and his brother-in-law, Noah Phelps, were delegates to the con- 



^44 



Tin-: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION'. 245 

vention which finally adopted the so-called '' New Constitution " 
(Federal) in 1788. 

Captain David Phelps, the eldest son of Lieutenant David and 
Abigail Pettibone Phelps, was born in Simsbury, April 6, 1734. 
Abigail Griswold of Windsor became his wife. When New York 
was threatened by Howe, David Phelps, Jr., responded immedi- 
ately to his country's call for help. He enlisted as second 
lieutenant in the company of Captain Jonah Gillett of Windsor, 
but was soon promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. He led 




JEFFERY O. PHELPS HOUSE. 
(Built by Capt. Elisha Phelps, son of David and Abigail Phelps.) 

the second company of the second battalion in the regiment com- 
manded by Colonel Fisher Gay of Farmington, Brigadier- 
General James Wadsworth commanding the brigade. These 
regiments were raised in June, 1776, and were in active service 
during the summer and fall of the same year. They served at 
the Brooklyn fi'ont before and during the battle of Long Island, 
and shared the thrilling experiences of the Continental soldiers, 
as they made their escape through the darkness and fog across 
the river to New York. This was one of the memorable incidents 
of the war. 

Wadsworth's brigade was also in the retreat from New York 
City on September 15, and later was with the main army at the 



^46 



Till 



PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



battle of White Plains, retiring from service at the expiration of 
the term, December 25, 1776. David Phelps' son, David Phelps, 
3d, accompanied his father to camp as his Avaiter. A wooden 
pillow with a liollow place for a head rest, which David Phelps 
used while in the armv, is still in the possession of one of his 
descendants ; also some knitting needles used for making lish nets, 
once owned bv C'aiHain David Phelps. 




KNITTING M.I 1)1. K> lUK .M.VKIN'C ITSII NETS. 



(Belonging: to Captain David Plidps. a son of Abigail Plielps.) 

David Phelps subsequently served as lieutenant in the militia 
at the time of the Danbuiy Alarm, when Connecticut was first 
invaded by Tryon, April 25-28, 1777. In 1779 l^e was commis- 
sioned captain in the 18th Connecticut militia, composed of 
companies from Simsbury and vicinity, and commanded by his 
brother Colonel Noah Phelps. His company was also called out 
on the \ew Maven Alarm, on the occasion of Tryon's second 
invasion of Connecticut, July, 1779. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



247 



Captain David Plielps died in Simsbury, April 17, 181 1. His son 
Oliver Cromwell Phelps was a man of much ability, and among 
Captain Phelps' other notable descendants was the late William 
Walter Phelps, minister to Germany, whose successful career as 
scholar, financier, and statesman can have only a bare mention 
here. 




OLIVER CROMWELL PHELPS. 



(Grandson of Abigail Phelps.) 



Captain Elisha Phelps, the second son of David and Abigail 
Phelps, was born in Simsbury, October 17, 1737. He married 
Rosetta, a daughter of Esquire John Owen and of his wife Esther 
( Humphreys). Elisha accompanied his brother Noah on the Ticon- 
deroga expedition. He was appointed by Governor Trumbull 
deputy-commissary for the Connecticut troops in the Northern 
Department, June 8, 1775, and continued in the service under 



-4S 



TITR TATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Generals Schuyler and Montgomery through the year. He 
died July 14, 1776, at Albany. A tombstone erected to his 
memory in the cemetery at Simsbury bears the following inscrip- 
tion : 

" Behold & see as you pass by 

As you are now so once was I. 

As I am now so must you Be 

Prepare to die & Follow me." 




THE uui- mi:ado\v.-> clmi.ierv, simsulrv, \vhi:re kicht uk.nkratiu.n.s uf the 

rHEI-PS FAMIEY LIE BURIED." 



Colonel Noah Phelps, the youngest son of David and Abigail 
Phelps, was born in Simsbury, January 22, 1740. He possessed 
remarkable physical strength and was also a man of similarly 

*Thc oldest stones bear tlie date of 16SS. The one erected to the wife of Peter 
Hnei lias the following inscription : 

Here lyes tlie body of Mercy Buel ye wife of Peter Huel who departed this 
life on July 4, 16S8, aged 22 years. 

Tliougli Mercy is dead and buried 

Yet let us ever mind. 
Let God be just, all him who irust, 

Sliall surely Mercv find. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 249 

Strong principle and character. That lie was a brave and able 
oflficer in the Colonial Army is shown by his repeated promotions. 
The following original commissions are still in the possession of 
his descendants : 

Noah Phelps, commissioned Lieutenant of the Second Company or Trainband 
of the Town of Simsbury, dated in New Haven, the 28th day 
of October, A.D. 1771 ; signed by Jonathan Trumbull, Com- 
mander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Colony of Connecticut ; by 
George Wyllys, Secr'3\ 

" " commissioned Captain of a Troop of Horse in the Eighteenth 

Regiment of the Colony of Connecticut, dated in New Haven 
the 2d day of November, A.D. 1774; signed by Jonathan 
Trumbull, Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Colony of 
Connecticut ; George Wyllys, Secr'3'. 

" " commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighteenth Regiment of 

Foot, in the State of Connecticut, dated at Hartford, this tenth 
day of June. A.D. 1778 ; signed b}' Jonathan Trumbull, Gov- 
ernor of the State of Connecticut ; George WAdlys, Secr'y. 

" " commissioned Colonel of the Eighteenth Regiment of Foot, in 

the State of Connecticut : dated at Hartford, this eleventh da}' 
of June, A.D. 1779; signed by Jonathan Trumbull, Governor 
of the State of Connecticut ; George Wyllys, Secr'y. 

'' " commissioned Brigadier-General of the First Brigade of INHlitia 

of the State of Connecticut ; dated at New Haven, this third 
day of November, A.D. 1792 ; signed by Samuel Huntington, 
Governor of the State of Connecticut ; George Wyllys, Secr'y. 

" " commissioned Major-General of the First Division of Militia of 

the State of Connecticut ; dated at New Haven, this twenty- 
seventh da}' of October, A.D. 1796 ; signed b}' Oliver Wolcott, 
Governor of the State of Connecticut ; George Wyllys, Secr'y. 

During a part of the time when Noah Phelps was in the service 
he was attended b}^ his son, Noah Amherst Phelps.* 

Noali Phelps gave freely of his substance and repeatedly risked 
his life in the service of his countrv. His first famous exploit 
was in 1775 '^vhen he entered Fort Ticonderoga as a spy. The 
chronicler writes : " Captain Phelps, pretending that his object 
was to get shaved, entered the fort and succeeded in avoiding 
suspicion until he had gained the desired information. The boat- 
man, however, who rowed him across Lake Champlain, for some 
reason suspected his character and attempted to take him back to 

* Portrait of Noah Amherst Phelps, see page 243. 



THE PATRON SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



I 



1 







DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAX REVOLUTION. 



251 



the fort, but was prevented by the superior strength of his passen- 
ger." Tliere is no doubt that it was largely owing to the shrewd- 
ness and bravery of Captain Noah Phelps that Ethan Allen was 
able to surprise and capture the fort without loss of life. He was 
especially qualified for this expedition from the fact that he had 
served under General Amherst at the capture of the fort from the 
French in 1759, and was therefore thoroughly familiar with the 
country around Lake Champlain. The tin trunk carried by him 




TRUNK WHICH BELONGED TO GENERAL NOAH PHELPS, SON OF ABIGAIL PHELPS. 



when he ran away from liome and served as a scout in the French 
and Indian war is still preserved in the family of his descendants. 
Noah Phelps was later an army contractor in the Northern 
Department. He re-entered the service in 1776 as Captain in the 
regiment of Colonel Andrew Ward of Guilford. This regiment 
was raised in Connecticut on requisition of the Continental Con- 
gress, to serve for one year from May 14th, 1776, and stocxl on the 
same footing as the other Continental regiments of 1776. It 
joined Washington's army at New York in August, and was sta- 
tioned at first near Fort Lee. Captain Phelps marched with the 



252 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



troops to White Plains, Avhere a decisive battle was fought, and 
subsequently into New Jersey. He took part in the battles of 
Trenton, December 25th, 1776, and Princeton, January 3d, 1777— 
two of the most brilliant engagements of the war, and encamped 
with Washington at Morristown, New Jersey, until expiration of 
liis term in May, 1777. On May loth, 1777, he led a skirmishing 
party between Brunswick and Piscataqua, New Jersey. 

Captain Phelps re-entered the service later in the year 1777, and 
in May, 1778, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of 
the i8th Connecticut Militia, and was commissioned Colonel of 
the same regiment in May, 1779. It is probable that at least a 
portion of this regiment was called out on both the Danbury and 
New Haven Alarms on the occasion of Tryon's invasions. 

Colonel Noah Phelps was the second Judge of Probate for the 
town of Simsbury, and his writing, which in its firmness and 
strength was characteristic of the man himself, may still be easily 
read from the town records. 




Colonel Noah Phelps was commissioned a brigadier-general in 
1792 and in 1796 a major-general. He died March 4, 1809. His 
epitaph reads, " A patriot of '76 ; to such we are indebted for our 
national independence." 

Noah Phelps married Lydia Griswold of Windsor, June loth, 
1761, and settled in vSimsbury. On account of the frequent and 
prolonged absences of Colonel Phelps, it was necessarv for his 
wife to take upon herself, to a large extent, the care and training 
of the children, and this duty she performed faithfully and well, 
as is proved by her children's records. 

General Noah Phelps and Lydia Griswold his wife were the 
ancestors of many notable men and women. One of their sons, 
the Honorable Elisha Phel|)s, was a graduate of Yale College and 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REX'OLUTIOX. 



253 



was known as an eminent lawyer from 1805 to 1847. He was 
several times a member of the Ilonse of Representatives, and of 
the Senate of his native state, Speaker of the National House 
of Representatives, a member of Congress for three terms, and 
one of the commissioners appointed in 1835 to revise the statutes 
of Connecticut. He is the only State Comptroller who came from 
the town of Simsbury. 

John S. Phelps, a son of Elisha and grandson of Noah, was born 
in Simsbury, but early in life went to Missouri. Like his father. 




THE HtJNOKAKLE KLISIIA I'lIELr^ HufSE.- 



he was a brilliant and distinguished lawyer, and was sent to the 
Legislature of his state and later to Congress. He was appointed 
War Governor of Arkansas in 1862, and some years after was 
elected Governor of Missouri. This office he filled so satisfac- 
torily that a second nomination was offered him, which he 
declined. 

The pursuit of the law seems to have been a favorite one in the 
familv of General Noah Phelps. Another of his sons, Noah 

*The present residence of Mrs. Antoinette Eno Wood, granddaughter of 
Honorable Elisha Phelps, and Regent of the Abigail Phelps Chapter. 



^54 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Amherst, had three sons— Noah, Jeffery and Hector, all of whom 
were laAvyers. Noah Phelps, the eldest of the three, practiced law 
in Hartford from 1812 to 1820, when he became sheriff of the 
county, an office which he held for seyeral years. He was also 
State Secretary from 1842-44, and produced beside some excellent 
literary work, his "History of Simsbury and Newgate" being- 
especial ly noteworthy. 



^^ 



P 




HONORABLli KLISHA PHELPS. 
(Son of General Noah Phelps.) 

Jeffery Phelps, though entirely self-educated, was well and' 
widely known as the possessor of a yast fund of legal knowledge. 
He was a pensioner of the war of 1812. He died in 1879, and is- 
well remembered by the present generation as a wuse and useful 
citizen, and as one of the suryiying few who had the bearing and 
courtly manners of a gentleman of the old school. 

Noah Amherst Phelps had two other sons, (iuy and (ieorge 
Hwight, who were successful in business and thoroughly upright 
and iionorable men in all the relations of life. Guy Phelps was. 
the leading promoter of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance 
Comjiany. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



255 



But time would fail to speak of all the notable descendants of 
the remarkable woman who is the subject of this sketch ; only a 
few have been mentioned who have lineal descendants in the 
Simsbury Chapter. 

The result of the firm and judicious control which Abigail 
Phelps maintained over her children was evidenced in their lives, 
and no heroine could desire a nobler monument than the record 




y 



• 



JANE SMITH PHELPS. 
Wife of Elisha Phelps. 

of her children's children unto the third and fourth generation. 
She passed away October 17, 1787, but her memory and influence 
will live on through succeeding generations. 

Eleanor CramJall Plielps. 

(l\IKS. JEFFERY O. I'HELPS.) 



The authorities used in compiling this sketch are : 

The History of Connecticut Men in the Revolution. 

Phelps' History of Simsbury. 

Simsbury Town Records. 

Stiles' History of Ancient Windsor. 

Humphrey Genealogy. 

Hartford County Memorial. 

Simbury Church Records. 

Family Papers, 




CKNKKAL WILLIAM FLOYD. 
(Signer of the Declaration of Independence. The fallier of Mary Floyd Tallmadge.) 



MARY FLOYD TALLMADGE 

DAUGHTER OF 

GENERAL WILLIAM FLOYD 

Signer Declaration of Independence 
WIFE OF 

GOLONEL BENJAMIN TALLMADGE 

Of the Second Light Dragoons and of General IVasbington's Secret Service 



MARY FLOYD TALLMADGE CHAPTER 
LITCHFIELD 



17 




MAKV KI.OVl) TAI.LMADGE AND ClilLUKKN. 

(l'"ii>m :i plioiograpli nf the original nainling by Earle. In the possession of Mi. 1". S. Tallniadfie 

of \e\v York.) 



MARY FLOYD TALLMADGE 




■UR Revolutionary women, with a few exceptions, are 
remembered as the wives, or daughters, or mothers of 
the men who made our country a nation. In tlie dim 
background of tlie Revolution we see the women fill- 
ing at home the duties of husband and father as well as of wife 
and mother. Occasionally some woman dashed into the fore- 
ground of history, Avith a deed of daring and devotion, but more 
often they are unheard and unseen, too often unremembered. 

Of such was Marv Flovd Tallmadge, the sponsor of the chapter 
formed in historic Litchfield. Little known even to her descend- 
ants, she is pre-eminent through the distinguished service of her 
father and husband, and as the ancestor of a long line of intellec- 
tual men and women. Slie was the daughter of Gen. William 
Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the 
wife of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge. Her hand was sought in 
marriage by James Madison, and Jefferson paid his court to her 
sister Catherine.* Young women accustomed to the society of 
such men and capable of arousing their respect and love, must 
have been endowed with rare characters and graces. 

Mary Floyd was distinguished in her ancestry, having sprung 
from the best of New York and Long Island stock. Very little 
is known of her mother, Hannah f Jones, daughter of William 
Jones of Southampton, Long Island, but of her father, William 
Floyd, and of his ancestry, colonial and Revolutionary records 
are full. 

The Flovd familv is of Welsh descent, having as common 
ancestor in America, Richard Floyd, who in 1654 settled in 



Catherine afterward married the Rev. William Clarkson. 
Not Isabella, as stated in some histories. 



.'6o 



THE PATRON SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Setauket, L. I., where he acquired considerable real estate. He 
was also one of the fifty-five original proprietors of Brookhaven, 
L. I. (the earlv home of Col. Tallmadge), and is svipposed to have 
died about 1700, leaving children (number unknown) by a wife, 
Susannah, whose family name is lost. He was a prominent mem- 
l)er of the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
New England, and is supposed to have been in this country before 

his settlement here in 1654. 
In 1650 the Britisli Parlia- 
ment appointed him treasurer 
of a corporation organized 
to spread the Gospel among 
the Indians, an appointment 
Avhich gives evidence of his 
})hilanthropic and missionary 
s})irit. 

This first settler of the 
Flovd name had a son Rich- 
ard, born May 12, 1665, 
probably at Brookhaven, L. 
I., who inherited most of his 
father's property. He mar- 
ried (September 10, 1686), 
Margaret Nicoll, daughter of 
Col. Mathias Nicoll, Secre- 
tary of the Colony of New 
York, and sister of William 
Nicoll, patentee of the Islip 
estate on Long Island, so 
called from Islip, Northamp- 
tonshire, England, where the Nicoll family originated. This 
marriage, therefore, united two families of ancient stock and high 
position, not only in the colonies but in the mother country. 

The first known ancestor of the Nicoll family was John Nicoll, 
a lawyer of Islip, England, who was entitled to the use of armo- 
rial bearings. lie died in 1467, leaving six sons and six daughters 
by a wife, Annys. Eighth in descent from John was Mathias, 
\vh(j was sent out to America bv Lord Clarendon in 1664, as the first 




M.VKY ll.OYD TALLMADGE. 

(Copy of a photograph from original miniature in 

the possession of Mrs. Neely (Mary Floyd 

Delafield), wife of the Bishop of Maine). 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 26 1 

secretary of the Colony of New York, soon after its conquest by 
the English. He became the founder of the New York family of 
Nicoll. He held several important judicial positions in the 
Colony, owned large tracts of land on Cow Neck and Great 



'%. 




-^^ 



x-^ 



COLONEL BEN'JAMIX TALLMADGE. 
Husband of Mary Floyd Tallmadge. 
(From a pencil sketch by Colonel Trumbul 



Neck, L. I., and died in 1687, leaving two children, the aforesaid 
Margaret and William. The latter became one of the original 
owners of Islip, and a part of his extensive patent is still in the 
possession of a great-grandson of the same name. 



262 THE TATROX SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Richard Flcivd was for many years a judge, and a colonel of 
the militia of Suffolk County. Margaret NicoU, his wife, died 
February i, 17 18, and Richard Floyd followed ten years later. 
Thev had seven children. Their son Nicoli married Tabitha 
Smith, a granddaughter of Richard Smith, commonly called the 
" Patentee of Smithtown." 

Richard Smith, with his father, Richard senior, came from 
(rloucestershire, England, and was one of the original settlers of 
Long Island, first at Setauket, and later near the river Missisciuo- 
que, on a large tract of land, conveyed to him by the original 
owner, Lyon Gardiner. Smithtown was founded by him and be- 
came a town in 1683. Tabitha, his descendant, and her husband, 
Xicoll Floyd, were the grandparents of our heroine and the 
parents of her illustrious father. Gen. William Floyd, soldier and 
statesman and champion of liberty. 

William Floyd was born December 17, 1734, on the family 
estate at Mastic, L. I., which he inherited at the early age of 
eighteen, and where he entertained lavishlv, making his house the 
center of a wide "circle of friends. He filled many local offices, 
and early became an officer in the Suffolk County militia, rising 
finally to the rank of Major-General. He married Hannah Jones 
of Southampton, L. L, the license being dated August 20, 1760-61, 
and on ^Lay 6, 1764, our heroine makes her first appearance on this 
world's stage. 

It was the beginning of troublous times for all patriots who 
took a burning interest in the growing controversies betAveen 
(xreat Britain and her indignant colonies. Having espoused the 
patriot's cause with much fervor and sincerity, Mr. Floyd was 
appointed one of the delegates from New York to the first Conti- 
nental Congress of 1774, and from this time his life became so 
identified with the public service that for years he could have 
caught hardly more than passing glimpses oi his wife and family. 

In 1775 he was a delegate to that immortal Second Congress 
of the Colonies which met at Philadel])hia on May loth, and he 
was among the first to set Ids name to that document which cut 
the American Colonies forever loose from the tyranny of George 
the 'J'hird. For this act, a reward of ;^ 1,000 was offered for 
William Floyd's liead, so fraught with danger to British power 
was he regarded by the English government. 



DAITGHTKRS OF TIIK A^IERICAN REX'OLUTION. 263 

When the British took possession of Long- Island, Mr. Floyd 
was in Congress. Mrs. Floyd and her children fled for safety to 
Connecticut, leaving their home and property in the hands of 
plundering invaders, and for seven years the British had the use 
of General Floyd's land and revenues. The mansion became the 
headquarters of a troop of horse, and during the remainder of the 
war, General Floyd and his family were left without home or 
income, Mary being at this time about twelve years old. 

In 1777, ixnder the new State Constitution, General Floyd was 
appointed a senator of New York, and in 177S he was unanimously 
re-elected to the Continental Congress. Thereafter he served 
both state and nation almost continually until his voluntary 
retirement, being a member of almost every important board and 
committee, both civil and military. 

During the war, to him, under Washington, was entrusted the 
reorganization of the militia into an effective regular army. At 
tlie close of the war he returned home with his family amid the 
general rejoicing of the entire countryside. Mary was now nine- 
teen years of age, and her emotions on returning to the home of 
her childhood, despoiled and ruined by the enemies of her country, 
can be imagined. 

General Floyd's personal affairs now needed his attention, and he 
declined a re-election to Congress, but remained a member of the 
state senate until 1789, when he was elected a member of the first 
Congress u.nder the Federal Constitution. Afterwards he was 
repeatedly chosen presidential elector, and in 1801 he served as a 
delegate from Long Island to revise the state constitution. 

In 1803 he removed with his family to Oneida County, where 
he had previously acquired land on the Mohawk River, and 
where the town of Floyd perpetuates his name. He died at 
Western Oneida County, x\ugust 4, 1821, fifty years of his life 
having been given to his country's service. 

He left five children : 

1. NicoLL, father of the Hon. John G. Floyd, member of Congress for Oneida. 

2. Mary, wife of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge. 

3. Catherine, wife of Rev. William Clarkson. 

4. An.\, wife of George W. Clinton, son of the Vice-President. 

5. Eliza, wife of lames Piatt of Utica, N. Y. 



264 THE PATROX SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Siicli was tlie father of Mary Floyd Tallmadgc. Of his daughter, 
little save her picture remains to her descendants. Doubtless the 
scenes of turmoil and excitement through which she passed 
served to bring her womanhood to a strong and early maturity. 
Obliged to tlv when a child of twelve from a luxurious home, a 
refugee from violence and plunder, growing up in exile during 
seven anxious years, and separated from her father, it is evident 
she had her full share of Avoman's burdens during the years of the 
Revolution. 

But better days came at last. The close of the war restored to 
her her childhood's home, and a new life opened in the coming of 
the man who was to be her husband, whose record already formed 
a bright page in his countrv's history. In his Memoir, Colonel 
Tallmadge thus reefers to his courtsliip and marriage. After 
recounting the events of a journey to the east end of Long Island, 
full of social visits, joyous receptions, and liappy celebrations of 
the recent peace, he writes : 

''The Autumn and Winter of 1783 were devoted very much to 
these most pleasing and delightful visitations. Among others 
(not the least pleasant and interesting) were those which secured 
to me a companion -And friend, tiie most desirable in ni}- view, had I 
been privileged with a choice from her whole sex. After visiting 
Ccmnecticut and arranging and settling my plans for a mercantile 
life in the place where I now reside [Litchfield], on the i8th of 
March, 1784, I led Miss Floyd to the hymeneal altar, and com- 
menced the life and duties of a married man. She was the eldest 
daughter of the Hcjnorable William Floyd of Mastic, Long Island. 
. . . As soon as peace was proclaimed he, with many others who 
had left their property in the hands or under the control of the 
common enemy, returned to their homes. These the)' found for 
the most part sadly changed for the worse. But it was ver}' com- 
forting to all who had suffered this voluntary banishment from 
their own soil, once more to place the soles of their feet upon 
it. The nuptials of Miss Floyd and myself were solemnized 
on the 18"' of March, 1784, my honored father officiating, when 
General Fhjyd gave a most sumptuous entertainment to a great 
number of invited guests." 

Colonel Tallmadge was at this time thirtv years of age, the 
honored friend of Washington and Lafayette, and his bride was 
but twentv. He writes: 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



265 



" Soon after our marriage, we paid a visit to New York, \vhere 
we found a great number of friends with whom Ave spent a few 
weeks very pleasantly. We were treated with great hospitality by 
the family of Mr. Joseph Hallett, at whose hospitable abode we 
were invited to take up our lodgings. After this visit was ended 
we returned back to Mastic, calling on our friends on the North 
side of Long Island and on Shelter Island wdiom we wished to see 
before we departed to our abode at Litchfield, Connecticut. We 




THE TALLMADGE RESIDENCE, NORTH STREET, LITCHFIELD. 
Home of Miiiy Floyd Tallmadjie. Built in 1775. 
(Now owned and occupied by lier great-granddaughter, Mrs. John Arent Vandcrpoel.) 

took a jaunt down the island, which was considered rather as a part- 
ing visit. In this also we had a very pleasant journey and time 
seemed to glide insensibly away, which brought us every day 
nearer to the period when we expected to bid Long Island a final 
adieu as our home. Indeed, I had not made it my place of resi- 
dence since I entered college in the year 1769, and as for my 
beloved partner, she had nev'er seen her father's house since the 
family left it in the year 1776, wdien the British troops took 
possession of it and New York." 



266 TIllC I'ATKOX SAINTS OF COXXFX'TICUT CIIAl'TERS 

Tlie house ill Litchfield to whicli Colonel Tallniadge brous^ht his 
young wife had been built in 1775, -by Capt. Elisha Sheldon, a 
Litchfield resident and colonel of the famous Second Light 
Dragoons of Connecticut, in which Colonel Tallmadge served as 
major through the war. It was undoubtedly Colonel Sheldon's 
influence which turned Colonel Tallmadge's attention to Litchfield, 
and induced him to make this (even then) historic town his resi- 
dence. The house which has remained in the possession of his 
descendants, except for about twenty years, is now owned and 
occupied bv his great-granddaughter.* The A\'ings with their 
quaint corner porches and two-story pillars, were added one 
after the other to the main building by Colonel Tallmadge him- 
self, as his family increased. It is thought that he modeled the 
additions after Mt. Vernon, where he was a frequent visitor, for 
the ells resemble the wings of Washington's residence, and are 
quite unlike any other architectural feature in Litchfield. 

In this house was kept in custody in 1776 the Hon. William 
Franklin, roval governor of New Jersey (a son of the famous 
Benjamin), and Washington jirobably spent several nights under 
its roof. 

In Revolutionary davs Litchfield was the fourth town in Con- 
necticut in population and in manufacturing importance. It was 
on the direct line of travel, via the old coaching turnpike and post 
road between Hartford and the Hudson River, and between New 
York State and all points in New England. It was a safe place 
of deposit for army stores and ammunition, among which was the 
leaden statue of Cjcorge the Third taken from Bowling Green, 
New York, and dejMJsited in the back garden of Oliver Wolcott's 
liouse, where it was melted beneath the fiery glances and ardent 
fingers of the women of Litchfield, and flowed thence a stream of 
bullets straight to the hearts of King (ieorge's troops. Litchfield 
was the recruiting ground of Revolutionarv regiments, the prison 
iiouse of captured Britons, and the home of men ])rominent in law — 
in Congress — in the army. Through its quiet streets passed armies 
and army trains on tluir way to the front ; hence it became the 
stopping place of the great Chief himself, whose visits are a 
matter of history. 

*Mrs. John Arcnt Vandcrpocl. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AIMERICAX REN'OLUTION. 



267 



In the Oliver Wolcott iiouse on South street, Washington and 
Hamilton were entertained on their way to West Point in 17S0 — 
probably that same memorable journey which was to end in the 
discovery of Arnold's treachery, which Benjamin Tallmadge was 
on the eve of revealing as the result of his famous detention of 
Major Andre. 

The narrative of Colonel Tallmadge's rev(jlutionary career, 
chiefly drawn from tiie pages of his " Memoir," written by him- 




NORTH STREET, LITCHFIELD, LOOKING NORTH. 
(On which is the Talhnadge residence.) 

self at the request of his children, is told with the simplicity and 
manliness of the soldier and in the courtly phrases of tlie old-time 
gentleman. 

Benjamin Tallmadge was born at Brookhaven, Long Island, on 
the twenty-fifth of February, 1754, and was the son of the Rev. 
Benjamin Tallmadge and Susannah Smith, who were married on 
the sixteenth of May, 1750. His great-grandfather Tallmadge 
(first name unknown) came from England with a brother and 
settled at Branford, Connecticut. His father, born at New Haven 
in 1725, was graduated from Yale College in 1747, became a minister 



268 THE PATRON- SAIXTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

and settled at Brookliaven or Setauket, where he died in 1786. 
Susannah Smith Tallmadge, his wife, died in 1768, leaving five sons, 
of whom the second was Benjamin. 

Benjamin, when fifteen years old, went to Yale College, 
having been qualified to enter at the age of twelve. He took his 
first degree in 1773, and had the honor of an appointment to 
speak publicly. Soon after, he became superintendent of the 
Academy in Wethersfield, where he remained until he joined the 
armv. He hurried to Boston after the engagement at Bunker 
Hill, and there he met his friend Captain Chester, who had been 
in the fight. Chester was soon appointed a colonel, and young 
Tallmadge was commissioned later a lieutenant in Chester's 
regiment, with the additional appointment of adjutant. His com- 
mission is dated June 20, 1776, and bears the signature of Governor 
Trumbull. 

When Washington was concentrating the newly mustered 
Continental forces around New York, Lieutenant Tallmadge went 
thither with his regiment and was conspicuously engaged in the 
ensuing battles of Long Island and White Plains. In the masterly 
retreat from Long Island, his regiment was among the last to leave, 
and had barely reached New York in safety, when the daring 
youth returned for his favorite horse, which he had left on Brook- 
lyn ferry. "Having obtained permission," he writes, "I called 
for a crew of volunteers . . . and guiding the boat myself, I 
obtained my horse and got off some distance into the river before 
tlie enemy appeared in Brooklyn. As soon as they reached the 
ferry we were saluted merrily from their musketry, and finally by 
their field pieces; but we returned in safety." Soon afterwards 
Lieutenant Tallmadge was appointed major in place of Major 
Wyllys, who had been taken prisoner by the British. 

During the battle of White Plains, INIajor Tallmadge again 
found himself in a perilous position while attempting to gain a 
position on Chatterton Hill, across the Bronx, in advance of an 
overwhelming force of Hessians. After seeing the last of his 
troops landed on the other side of the Bron.x, he was about to cross 
the river himself "Avhen," he writes, " our chaplain, the Rev. Dr. 
Trumbull, sprang up behind me on niy horse, and came with such 
force as to carry me witii niv accoutrements, together with 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 269 

himself, headlong into the river. This so entirely disconcerted 
me, that by the time I reached the opposite bank of the river the 
Hessian troops were about to enter it, and considered me as their 
prisoner." But his troops poured out such a destructive fire from 
behind stone walls that the Hessians broke and fled. "This 
relieved me from mv perilous situation," he continues, " and I 
immediately remounted my horse and taking my course in the 
valley, directly between the hostile armies, I rode to Head Quarters 

and informed General Washington of the situation of the 

troops on Chatterton Hill." 

In the fall of 1776 came a complete reorganization of the 
military system in the Continental army, which called for the 
enlistment of four regiments of horse, one of which was the 
famous Second Regiment of Light Dragoons commanded by Col. 
Elisha Sheldon. Major Tallmadge was appointed to the command 
of the first troop of this regiment. 

"As these appointments were from Gen. Washington, I felt 
highly honored and gratified by the a]:)pointment," he writes, 
" and .... I enlisted the quota of men for mv troop. My com- 
mission as Captain bore date the fourteenth of December, 1776, 
and was signed by John Hancock, President. I had now entered 
upon a new career, both as to the nature and duration of my 
military service. The dragoon service being so honorable and so 
desirable, it became an object of primary importance to obtain an 
appointment in this corps." 

The campaigns in New Jersey followed, and Washington soon 
called for the recruits to assemble at headquarters in Middle- 
brook, a special order being issued to Col. Sheldon to send on 
all the effective men of his regiment. Four troops were "put in 
the best order," writes our hero, "and the command of the squad- 
ron was given to me, as senior Captain in this regiment. My 
own troop was composed entirely of dapple grey horses, which, with 
black straps and Avith black bearskin holster covers, looked superb. 
I have no hesitation in acknowledging that I felt very proud of 
this command." On leaving at this time his winter quarters in 
Wethersfield for the front, Captain Tallmadge passed through 
Litchfield to the Hudson, this being probably his first sight of his 
future home. On April 7, 1777, Tallmadge received his com- 



2-jo Till'". I'ATROX SAIXTS OF COXXKCTICl'T CHAPTERS 

mission as major, resigning his command of his favorite troop 
to fill the position of field officer. Major Tallmadge was engaged 
in every battle which took place at this period of the war, at 
Short Mills and the Brandywine, and in every move of the oppos- 
ing- armies around Philadelphia. In the battle of Germantown 
at the command of Washington, he made skilful but ineffectual 
attempts to check the retreating Americans by throwing his squad- 
ron repeatedlv across their path. The army two months later 
went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, during which Tatl- 
madfe received an appointment to the command of an advanced 
corps of observation, consisting of a picked detachment of 
dragoons. In this capacity he patrolled the intermediate ground 
between the opposing armies, rarely tarrying in the same place 
through the night, nor even unsaddling his horses. In connection 
witii tills service he relates an interesting incident which occurred 
at the Rising Sun Tavern, in full view of the British outposts, 
where he went to meet a couiUrv girl, wliom he had sent into the 
city of Philadelphia to obtain information of the enemy. While 
talking with her, he saw the Hritish light horse bearing down on 
them at full speed, and catching the girl up behind him, he made 
for his own lines amidst firing of pistols, wheeling, and charging, 
throughout which the girl sat immovable as a statue, the embodi- 
ment of feminine nerve. " I was delighted with this transaction," 
he concludes, "and received manv com])liments from those who 
became acquainted with it." 

The scene of action now changes to the Hudson and vicinity, 
where Major Tallmadge began his brilliant outpost and skirmish 
work throughout Westchester County, on Long Island, and on 
the coast of Connecticut. In the same year (1778) he began 
his secret service work for Washington, which resulted in a 
lasting friendship between himself and his Commander-in-Chief. 
Washington made full use of this secret service for the remainder 
of the war, and its importance can hardly be over-estimated. That 
Washington was never thereafter caught off his guard is largely due 
to this secret service conducted by Major Tallmadge. The Chief 
learned to honor and love the young dragoon, whose activity and 
vigilance rendered him this important service, and many letters 
which passed between them at this time are still in the possession 



DAUGHTERS OF TJ1I-: AMERICAN RE\OLUTION. 27 1 

of the Tallmadge family. Colonel Tallmadge writes : " I kept 
one or more boats continually emplo^^ed in crossing the sound 
on this business." But the most important line of communication 
established by Major Tallmadge was between Washington's lines in 
Westchester and the enemy's posts in New York and on Long 

Island and was maintained thrtnigli the agency of "C " or 

'' Culper," " Senior " and " Junior," which kept Washington con- 
stantly informed of the enemy's movements in their own strong- 
holds. The real name of the " C s " remains a mystery to this 

day, so carefully did Major Tallmadge protect his agents at 
the close of the war from those reprisals to which spies were 
subjected by the enemy in New York. He even went into 
New York at great risk to himself before its evacuation bv the 
British, in order to render the precarious position of his agents 
more secure. 

The campaign of 1779 was marked bv the ceaseless activitv of 
the Second Light Dragoons along the shores of Long Island 
Sound, and September witnessed a daring expedition against the 
enemy at Lloyd's Neck, L. I., undertaken by Major Tallmadge 
and his men who, without the loss of a man, returned with the 
entire British garrison as prisoners. 

In 1780 the enemy extended their posts eastward on I-ong 
Island and began extensive intercourse with the Tories of Con- 
necticut. Major Tallmadge determined to break up this entire 
system. He communicated his plans to General Washington, who 
listened with such kind attention tliat, to quote from his Memoir, 
" I felt almost prepared to make a direct application to cross 
the Sound with a detachment of troops." However, anotlier 
expedition against Long Island, planned bv General Parsons, 
having fallen through. Major Tallmadge repaired to his old station 
in Westchester, and there accomplislied the most memorable 
action of an alreadv memorable career — the capture of Major 
Andre. 

Major Tallmadge, upon retuining to regimental headquarters 
near Northcastle, on the evening of September 23, 1780, found 
that a prisoner, giving his name as John Anderson, had been 
brought into camp bv three "cow-boys" named Paulding, \'an 
Wert, and Williams, and had been sent under guard to General 
Arnold at West Point. From papers found on the prisoner, 



272 THK PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Tallmadge suspected something wrong and prevailed upon Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Jameson to order the prisoner's transfer from 
Arnold's headquarters to tlie headquarters of tlie vSecond Dra- 
goons. On tlie prisoner's arrival, Tallmadge recognized in his 
gait and carriage a military man, and at Salem, whither he 
removed him, Tallmadge became the recipient of the prisoner's 
confidence, who revealed his identity as that of Major John 
Andre, Adjutant-General in the British army. The sequel is 
well known : — Andre's conveyance to Washington's headquarters 
at Tappan under the escort of Major Tallmadge, the trial and 
the unfortunate young soldier's execution. Major Tallmadge's 
connection with the prisoner during those terrible days revealed 
to him the noble nature of this young man, who risked his good 
name and life for king and coiuitry. Tallmadge writes, "for 
the few days of intimate intercourse 1 had with him ... I became 
so deeply attached to Major Andre that I can remember no 
instance where my affections were so fully absorbed in any man. 
When I saw him swinging under the gibbet, it seemed for a time 
as if I could not support it." 

In a letter to Jared Sparks, Major Tallmadge gives a graphic 
description of Andre at the moment when he revealed the details 
of the now frustrated plot and concludes as follows : "Thus that 
important key of our country [West Point] Avould have been theirs 
and the Glory of so splendid an Atchievement would have been his. 
The Animation with which lie gave the Account, .... delighted 
me. ... 1 then inquired what was to have been his reward if he 
had succeeded. He replied that military Glory was all he sought, 
and that the thanks of his General and the approbation of his 
King was a rich reward for such an undertaking." 

Major Tallmadge returned to his post the day following Andre's 
execution, and soon his former plan for driving the enemy from 
Long Island again engaged his attention. Having obtained accu- 
rate plans of the stronghold of Fort George at Smith's Manor 
and also informatitm concerning large stores of hay, forage, etc., 
at Corum, he began to importune General Washington to allow 
liini to capture the one and destroy the other. The following 
hitherto unpublished letter of Washington's, authorizing the 
attack, and in rei:)ly to Major Tallmadge's letter, will be of 
interest : 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN RE\'OLUTION. 273 

Headquarters, November ii, 1780. 
" S/r : — I have received your letter of the 7th instant. The 
destruction of the forage collected for the use of the British army 
at Corum upon Long Island is of so much consequence, that I 
should advise the attempt to be made. I have Avritten to Col. 
Sheldon to furnish you a detachment of dismounted dragoons, 
and will commit the execution to you. If the party at Smith's 
house can be attempted without frustrating the other design or 
running too great a hazard, I have no objection. But you must 
remember that this is only a secondary object, and in all cases 
vou will take a most prudent means to secure a retreat. Confid- 
ing entirely in your prudence as well as enterprise, and wishing 
3-ou success, I am yours, &c., 

G. Washington." 

The following is Washington's letter of congratulation to Major 
Tallmadge upon the success of this venture, also unpublished, and 
still in the possession of the Tallmadge family: — 

MoRRisTOWN, November 28, 1780. 
^^ Dear Sir : — I have received with much pleasure the report of 
vour successful enterprise upon Fort George, and the vessels with 
stores in the bay, and was particularly well pleased with the 
destruction of the hay at Corum, which must I conceive be severely 
felt by the enemy at this time. I beg you to accept my thanks for 
vour judicious planning and spirited execution of this business, 
and that vou will offer them to the officers and men who shared 
the honors of the enterprise with vou. Tlie gallant behavior of 
Mr. Muirson gives him a fair claim to an appointment in the 
second regiment of dragoons when there is a vacancy, and I have 
no doubt of his meeting with it accordingly, if you will make 
known his merit, with these sentiments in his favor. You have 
my free consent to reward your gallant party with the little booty 
they were able to bring from the enemy's works. 

Yours, &c., 

G. Washington." 

For this deed Major Tallmadge received the horlor of public 
thanks from his Commander-in-Chief and from the Congress of 
the United States, an honor wliich " no person, but a military 
man," he writes, "knows liow to appreciate." 

This indefatigable trooper soon planned another attack on 
Long Island, viz., at Lloyd's Neck Fort, having explained his 
18 



274 



IIK I'ATRO.V SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




COLONKl, BENJAMIN T AIJ.MADCiE AND SON. 

(l'"roin a copy of a photograph of the original painting by Earle. In the possession of 
Mr. K. S. Tallmadge of New Yorlc.) 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 275 

plan to Washington, in a letter dated April 6, 1781. The follow- 
ing is Washington's reply promising an introduction to Count 
Rochambeau, who was then in Long Island — a letter which is also 
in the possession of Major's Tallmadge's descendants. 

New Windsor, April 8th, 1781. 
"Sir: — The success of the proposed enterprise must depend 
upon the absence of the British tieet, the secrecy of the attempt, 
and a knowledge of the exact situation of the enemy. If, after 
you have been at the westward, the circumstances, from your 
intelligence, shall still appear favorable, you will be at liberty to 
be the bearer of a letter to the Count de Rochambeau, to whose 
determination I have referred the matter. 

Yours, &c., 

G. Washington." 

But the absence of the necessary French frigates frustrated this 
plan, and Major Tallmadge again returned to his post in West- 
chester. 

In the fall of 1781 occurred Washington's brilliant feint against 
New York City, and his real descent upon Yorktown. 

Meanwhile Major Tallmadge continued his operations on the 
shores of the Sound, having been honored a second time with a 
separate command, and here he remained until the close of the 
war, flashing like a meteor between the Sound and the Hudson, 
harassing the hated "cow-boys " and "skinners," swooping down 
on the Tory traders of Long Island and Connecticut, until on the 
i8th of April, 1783, the longed for peace between the two nations 
was proclaimed. 

On the 13th of May the Society of the Cincinnati was inaugu- 
rated and Major Tallmadge was chosen treasurer of tlie Connecti- 
cut branch. In October Washington issued farewell orders to his 
armies, which, when they were read to the troops, made strong- 
men weep like children. To part from his beloved friend and 
General was indeed "heart-rending in the extreme," but much 
more heart-rending must have been that last scene at Fraunces 
Tavern. ". . . . The s/mp/c thought that we were then about to 
part from the man who had conducted us through a long and 
bloody war .... and that we should see his face no more in this 
world, seemed to me utterly unsupportable." 



276 THE TATROX SAIXTS OF COXXI-XTICUT CHAPTERS 

Major Tallmadge retired from tlie war with the rank of Colonel, 
and at once sought his father's house at Brookhaven, from which 
he had been absent seven years. In honor of the occasion, the 
overjoyed villagers roasted a whole ox on the public green and 
appointed Col. Tallmadge master of ceremonies, in which capacity 
he "carved, dissected, and distributed" the ox to the numerous 
company on the green. 

A few months afterward occurred his marriage followed by his 
removal to Litchfield, where fifty years of his long and useful life 
were spent in the service of his town and country. He became 
extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, and served as member 
of Congress from Connecticut for sixteen consecutive years from 
1800 to 1816. In 1812 he declined a prominent command in the 
Northern Army, offered him by President Madison. In 1814 he 
became the first president of the first bank in Litchfield, and 
continued in the office for twelve years. When Lafayette visited 
America in 1824, Colonel Tallmadge had an affectionate meeting 
with him in \e\v Haven, as with tears and smiles they recalled 
the scenes of their youtii. 

His "beloved partner," Mary Floyd, passed away on the third 
of June, 1805, at the age of forty-one. He survived her for thirty 
years, when, on the seventh of March, 1835, at the venerable age 
of eighty-two, he was laid to rest near her, in the historic burying 
ground of Litchfield, where their graves have been carefully 
tended l)y their descendants. The inscriptions read as follows : 

HoNi'i- Benjamin Tallmadge 
Born Feb>' 25, 1754 
Died March 7, 1835 
As the luirt panteth after the water brook, 
So panteth m\- soul after Thee, O God. 



Weep not for me. 

In Mcmor)- 

of 

Mks Mary Tallmadgk 

The Wife of 

Benjamin Tallmadge, Esq. 

who was born March 6"" 1764 

and died June 3'''' 1805. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



277 



During the twenty years of their married life, Mary Floyd gave 
birth to five sons and two daughters. She was loved and admired 
by all who knew her, for her sweet and gentle nature and for her 
brilliancy, piquancy, and wit. An original miniature of her still 
exists in the possession of a granddaughter,* also a paintingf by 
Earle in the possession of a grandson. 




CRAVES OF COLONEL BENJAMIN TALLMADGE AND MARY FLOYD TALLMADGE, HIS 
WIFE, EAST CEMETERY, LITCHFIELD. 

Colonel Tallmadge's Memoir was edited by his son Frederick 
Augustus, who was a noted lawyer in New York City and prom- 
inent in civil life. The Memoir closes with these words : " In this 
I'eview of the special mercies of God, vouchsafed to me, I desire 
most devoutly to adore and bless his protecting hand, and call on 
my soul and every faculty that I possess to adore and praise my 
Divine Benefactor." The manuscript of this Memoir (in the form 

* A photograph of this miniature, from a copy of which the illustration is 
taken, has been presented to the Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter b)- a grand- 
daughter, Marjr Floyd Delafield, wife of Bishop Necly of Maine. 

f See frontispiece of this sketch. 



278 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

of a daily journal) is in the possession of Colonel Tallmadge's 
great-granddaughter,* who also possesses the silken flag of the 
famous Second Light Dragoons, and an original letter from 
Washington to Colonel Tallmadge, on the subject of the secret 
service of the two "C — s," all in excellent preservation. A relic 
of Mary Floyd exists in the shape of a needle book of white satin, 
which she herself made and painted. f 

This sketch of Mary F"loyd, her father, and her husband, 
does scant justice, to characters it describes, and Litchfield, 
with all her venerable memories, has none she holds more dear 
than those which cluster around the romantic figures of Colonel 
Benjamin Tallmadge and his beautiful wife, Mary Floyd. 

Elizabeth C. Barney Biiel. 

(MRS. JOHN LAIDLAW BUEL.) 



The writer is indebted to Mrs. John A. Vanderpoel, who fur- 
nished family records and data otherwise inaccessible, and who 
aided in the work of illustration. The writer also makes acknowl- 
edgment to Mrs. Edward W. Seymour, a granddaughter of 
Colonel Tallmadge, for the use of her copy of the " Memoir of 
Colonel Tallmadge." Other books of reference were genealo- 
gies, chiefly the genealogy of John Nicoll of Lslip, England. 

* Mrs. J. H. Knox, Troy, N. Y. 

t Now in the possession of her great-granddaiighter, Mrs. J. A. Vanderpoel 
of New York. 



ESTHER STANLEY 
MELICENT PORTER 
SIBBIL DWIGHT KENT 
SARAH WILLIAMS DANIELSON 



REPRESENTING 



Colonc[5 aiiD /nbajors in tbc lUar of tbc IRcvolution 

GAD STANLEY 
PHINEAS PORTER 
ELIHU KENT 
WILLIAM DANIELSON 



ESTHER STANLEY CHAPTER 
NEW BRITAIN 



SIBBIL DWIGHT KENT CHAPTER 
SUFFIELD 



MELICENT PORTER CHAPTER 
WATERBURY 



SARAH WILLIAMS DANIELSON CHAPTER 
KILLINGLY 




A Kl:\ OI.UTIUNARY COAT, 



(OiKc- worn by a Uritish officer. Spoils of victory at White Plains. Still preserved in the 
family of Lydia Andrews' descendants. New Britain.) 



ESTHER STANLEY 






EW BRITAIN can not own to a separate existence 
until 1754, when by authority ecclesiastical and civil, 
she was set apart from Farmington with all the pow- 
ers and privileges of other incorporated societies in 
the colony. For many years tliereafter New Britain was but a 
parish belonging to the town of Farmington, and only in the 
year of the Lexington Alarm did New Britain, named for the 
Greater Britain, attain her majority. 

Before the Revolution she had acquired neither years nor dis- 
tinction, and can lay no claim to historic interest. That the 
sentiment of her people was strong in opposition to tyranny is 
evidenced by her ready response to the call for men and means to 
carrv on the war — a call often repeated and as often responded to. 
" During the second ]3eriod of the Revolution, from 1776 to 1778, 
when the main operations were in the North, a lai-ge number 
proportionately of the citizens of New Britain and Berlin were in 
the army ; and at White Plains, on the Hudson, in Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere, fought to secure the inde- 
pendence of the nation.'"^' 

The patriots who went from New Britain parish were fifty in 
number, and while much may be gathered from the old records to 
testify to the good service of the men, one must use the alembic 
of his imagination in treating of the women of the period, who 
seem to have found sufficient inspiration in looking "to the ways 
of their households," and who were content so long as their 
husbands and sons " stood in the gates." 

That little mention until her marriage is made of Esther Stanley, 
whose name the New Britain Chapter bears, is quite in line with 
the tradition that the sons and daughters of those days merged 
their interests in those of their birthplace, until such time as each 
should go forth to make a home for himself. More than two 
hundred years separate us from the date, May 18, 1697, which 
marks the birth in Farmington of Esther, daughter of Samuel 

* Camp's History of New Britain. 



282 Tin-; l\\TROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Cowles and of his wife Racliel Porter. Not a building is stand- 
ing in Farmington which was then in existence, and we can only 
point to the present site of the Dr. Carrington house, as the place 
of her birth. 

But the early records of Farmington testify to the fact tiiat 
Esther Cowles Stanley was well born, and that in her were united 
the blood of four families, whose founders in each family were 
among the most honorable of the early settlers in the Connecti- 
cut colony. John Cowles and Timothy Stanley on one side. 
Thomas Porter and Stephen Hart on the other. 

The marriage of Esther Cowles to Thomas Stanley took place 
in Kensington, January 2, 17 18, whither her father, Samuel 
Cowles, had moyed in 17 16. As a bride she entered a house built 
for her in Stanley Quarter, a picturesque section lying north of 
the present city of New Britain, where her children were born 
and where she died. 

The following is a list of the children of Thomas and Esther 
Cowles Stanley : 

1. Anna, born October 30, 1718 ; married Ozias Griswold ; died November 6, 

1732. 

2. Thomas, born November 27, 1720; married ( ) Mary Francis. 

3. Noah, born January 16, 1724 ; married ( ) Ruth Norton. 

4. Ruth, born July 8, 1726 ; died August 3, 1726. 

5. TiMOTHy, born August 13, 1727 ; married ( ) Lydia Newell. 

6. Abigah,, born March 7, 1730 ; married ( ) Capt. John Griswold. 

7. Job. born August 4, 1732 ; died July 5, 1740. 

S. GAD, born March 21, 1735 ; married October 29, 1767, Mary Judd. 

That Esther Stanley was a woman in whom "the heart of her 
husband safely trusted" is proved by the will* which Thomas 
Stanley made in 1747, nearly thirty years after their marriage : 

" I giye my dearly beloved wife Esther the use of one-third of 
my real estate during her life and one-third the personal, to be her 
(jwn. forever, and she is to take my negro woman Priscella for 
part of said dowery, also the service of my negro girl Katherine 
during her life, also the service of my negro boy, named Richard, 
until my son Gad be twenty-one, and furthermore, I do give my 
dearly beloved wife my great Bible, and one silver spoonf during 
her life." 

* Andrews' Genealogy and Ecclesiastical History of New Britain. 
+ The spoon, which is well preserved, is in the possession of Miss Martha Pcck^, 
a resident of New Britain. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



285 





Noah Stanley, the sec- 
ond son of Esther Stanley, 
is said to have been a lieu- 
tenant of a cavalry troop 
in the French war. Later 
in life he was chosen a 
deacon and was a careful 
observer of the Sabbath. 

That Colonel Gad Stan- 
lev, by his own confession, 
owed all that was best in 
him to the influence of his 
mother, gives us the key- 
note to both his own and 
his mother's character ; his 
military achievement is 
her glory, and that he 
nobly acquitted himself 
throughout his whole life 
her exceeding great re- 
ward. No name is more 
conspicuous in the early 
history of the town than 
his, and few have better 
borne their part in its 
later development than his 
descendants. 

Gad Stanley's military 
\ career began in May, 1773, 
when he was appointed 
captain of the Fifth Com- 
p a n y of the Fifteenth 
Regiment, commanded by 
Colonel Lee. At the 
opening of the Revolu- 
tionary struggle he was 
appointed one of a com- 
mittee "consisting of the 



THE ESTHER STANLEY SPOON. 
(Back of spoon.) 



THE ESTHER STANLEY SPOON. 
(Profile view.) 



284 



rilE I'ATROX SATNTS OF CONNECTICUT CIIAl'TERS 



principal men of the parishes of Farmington " to send money and 
supplies to Boston when its port was blockaded ; he also served 
as a member of a committee of eleven appointed "to keep up 
a corresj^ondence Avith the towns of this and the neighboring 
colonies." 




iiV 
















Ur 




GRAVKSTONK (JF ESTHER STANLEY, NEW IJRITAIN. 

Captain (iad Stanley enlisted in the Farmington comixmy of 
the first battalion which was raised in June, 1776, to reinforce 
Washington at New York, and which was engaged at the Brook- 
lyn fnjnt before and during the battle of Long Island (August 
27th). If, as some one has said, "a fine retreat should meet with 
a reward equal to that given for a great victory," then all honor 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 285 

to those who assisted Washington in liis retreat from Long Island, 
in which our representative from New Britain took part and led 
his company safely beyond the possibility of attack from the 
British forces. 

Mention is made in the book entitled "Connecticut Men in the 
Revolution," of Gad Stanley's having been witli tlie Conti- 
nental army at the battle of White Plains ; also of his having 
been promoted to the rank of major in Colonel Hooker's regiment 
in October, 1776, and later of his promotion to the rank of lieu- 
tenant-colonel in May, 1778. 

When the war closed Colonel Gad Stanley returned to his Iiome 
in Stanley Quarter in the same unpretending manner that he had 
gone forth to the war. Mounted on his horse he rode to the door 
unattended, and striking together the holsters of his saddle bow, 
awaited the assembling of his surprised familv. 

It is a matter of record that at the close of the Revolutionary 
war. Colonel Stanley served in nearly every important office in 
the town. He was a Representative from Farmington from 1778- 
17S2 ; from Berlin, 1785 to 1804 continuous! v, and he was active 
in securing the incorporation of Berlin as a distinct town. The 
name of Gad Stanley is also associated with that of Colonel Lee 
in school and parish affairs. 

Finally by virtue of his interest in church affairs as well as in 
national and military affairs, Colonel Stanley wdien seventy-four 
years old, was chosen chairman of the committee which called and 
settled, on December 2, 1809, Rev. Newton Skinner, who acted 
as a colleague of the aged Dr. Smallev in the church and parish 
of New Britain. 



The Ancestrv of Esther Cowles Stanley. 

JOHN COWLES = H.A.XN'AH TIMOTHY STANLEY STEPHEN HART 

H I ' r-^ 

SAMUEL COWLES = ABlGAn. STANLEY THOMAS PORTER = SARAH HART 



SAMUEL CO\VLES = RACHEL PORTER 

I 
HESTER COWLES = THOMAS STANLEY. 

(or ESTHER) 



286 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 287 



LYDIA ANDREWS- 

No engagement of the war took place within the borders of New 
Britain parish, but the war called for great sacrifices in these quiet 
homes of the women left to their own defense, and if the name of 
Lydia Root Andrews is given a place with that of New Britain's 
chapter heroine, it is because she furnishes an example of devotion 
to her country's need, wdiich is rare even in tlie annals of Revolu- 
tionary days, and which can hardly be equalled in modern times. 

Of the Revolutionary heroines whose record is preserved in the 
early history of New Britain, the name of Lydia Root Andrews 
deserves the most honored place. According to her biographer, 
she was "a woman of remarkable strength of character and of 
Christian spirit." She gave to her country her sons and her 
substance, laying " her hands to the distaff and spindle," and by 
her own industry fitted out six of her seven sons, and sent them 
forth to fight against the oppressors of their country. When only 
two remained at home — Nathaniel being considered too young to 
enlist with his five brothers — word came to the mother that her 
eldest son had died in the service. The youngest son then took 
the place of his dead brother, and we read of no faltering on her 
part as she girded on the armor of this Benjamin of her flock and 
sent him forth at sixteen years of age to serve his country. 

Lydia Root Andrews was the daughter of Joseph Root and of 
his wife Hannah Kellogg, and was born in Wethersfield, October 
5, 1725, and married Moses Andrews, also of Wethersfield, Novem- 
ber 10, 1748. They m^oved early to New Britain and occupied a 
house erected by her brother Joseph. This house was built in 
1752, and is the oldest of that scattered group of houses known in 
New Britain's village period as the Andrews' Settlement. 

* By vote of the Esther Stanle}' Chapter the record of Lydia Andrews and of 
her sons during the war is given a place in this sketch with the record of New 
Britain's chapter heroine. 



288 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

To Sergeant Moses and Lydia Root Andrews eight sons were 
born, namely : 

1. Samukl, born November 2, 1749 ; married December 17, 1769, Abigail Smith. 

2. MosKS, born December 15, 1750; died December, 1752. 

3. Joseph, born December 23. 1751 ; married February 6, 1777, M-dia Judd ; 

married 2d, Am}- Cowles. He died November 23, 1831. 

4. Moses, born April 7, 1755 ; married about 1779, Klizabeth Clark. He died 

Jul}'^ 20, 1848. 

5. Isaac, born January 31, 1757 ; married ( ) Betsey Talbot. He died Janu- 

ary II, 1799. 

6. John, born November 29, 175S ; married May 10, 1792, Phebe Lewis ; mar- 

ried 2d, March 16, 1800, Caroline Bronson. He died June 19, 1833. 

7. Jesse, born December 18, 1760 ; died April 4, 1790. 

8. Nathaniel, born October 15, 1762; married ( ) 17S6, Polly Lewis; mar- 

ried 2d, October 3, 1790, Jerusha Sage ; died August 27, 1S45 ; buried at 
Flint, Michigan. 

Of the seven sons of Lydia Andrews who reached manhood, 
three, Isaac, John and Jesse were physicians. The oldest son 
Samuel, died of camp distemper while serving in the Revolution- 
ary war, when not quite twenty-seven years of age. 

Corporal Joseph, the third son of Sergeant Moses and Lydia 
Andrews, enlisted in 1775, serving at first ten months. He 
re-enlisted the following year and was present at the battle of 
White Plains. As his share in the spoils of victory at White 
Plains, Joseph Andrews received the red coat of an English 
officer. The coat is pictured in the illustration used as a frontis- 
piece for the Esther Stanley Chapter sketches, and is the treas- 
ured possession of a great-great-granddaughter of Lydia Andrews. 
In the family genealogy Joseph Andrews in later life is thus 
referred to : "He was a thorough and successful fanner, a good 
mechanic, and had much exectiutive force and power." 

Moses, the fourth son, lived to be very old, but aside from a 
short term of service in the Revolutionary war, there is little 
worthy of record. 

To the one son left at home we are indebted for a glimpse of 
the gentler side of a nature, that perhaps loved not his country 
less, but his betrothed bride more. It was in the early days of 
the war, before Dr. Smalley, New Britain's minister, who was then 
a loyal British subject, had taken sides with the American patriots. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



289 



Upon a certain Sunday afternoon word reached New Britain 
parish that two British sliips of war liad arrived off New Lcjndon. 
Scarcely was the benediction pronounced wlien Captain Cxad 
Stanley gave notice to his military company to meet next morn- 
ing on "the parade." As Dr. Smalley joined the excited group 



r 




;icyr' 







GRAVESTONE OF LYDTA ROOT ANDREWS. 



around the door of the church, he exclaimed : " What I will you 
fight your king?" This remark enhamed the zealous young 
patriots, and one more fearless than the rest, forgot the deference 
due to the priest, and spoke as to an English oppressor. He 
compared King George to a serpent, and it was never forgiven the 
19 



290 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



impulsive vouth, wliose Ijrother, Jesse Andrews, had bes[«:)ken 
Anna Smalley's hand in marriage. Because of the hasty word of 
a brother, the vows were forbidden, "the unhappy lover pined 
awav and died," the country lost a defender, and the mother one 
of her seven sons. 

Lydia Andrews died July 6, 1806, and is buried in Fairview 
cemetery. New Britain. 

From the inscriptions on the gravestones we find but scant rec- 
ord of these Revolutionary women. If elsewhere we can discover 
anvliiing wortiiy of record, any tiling that besijeaks love of coun- 
trv and love of home, should we not unroll the scroll of time, 
re-write and re-dedicate these tablets, and thus " rescue from the 
moss-grown sepulchres restored, names that the race should 
honor." 



Ancestry of Lvdia Root Andrews. 

George Stocking; 



JoH.v Root — Ann Russell Matiiew Woodruff— Hannah Andrew Benton = Hannah Stc 



Tho.mas Root = 

I 



JoHN = 



Samuel= Sarah 



J osEPn = Hannah Havnes 

I r 

JonN = MARY Woodruff 



I I 

I 

JOSEI'H = nANNAU (BeNTON) KeLLOGG 
LVDlA RoOT=:MoSES ANDREWS 



Katharine M. Brooks. 

(mks. wm. f. brooks.) 



MELICENT PORTER 




HE last soldier* of the American Revolution has long 
since gone to his rest. Even the grandchildren of 
the patriots will soon be all gone, and it is chiefly 
from family documents and tradition that the events 
of the individual life of the Revolutionary soldiers can be 
gathered. 

There was no Red Cross Society for the women of Revolution- 
ary days to serve and labor in, but there Avere crosses to be borne 
by the women, of which the present generation can have little 
knowledge. 

Melicent (Baldwin) Porter, one of the cross-bearers of the Rev- 
olution and a standard-bearer as well, was born at Waterbury, 
Conn., November i6, 1750. In physique she was large and strong 
and of a noble and dignified presence. Her eyes were blue, her 
complexion fair, her hair light brown, which, at the time of her 
death, when she was seventy-four years old, retained its youthful 
color. 

The English name of Baldwin has been traced to the year 1445. 
Melicent Baldwin was descended from Richard and Isabel Bald- 
win, of Bucks County, England. Joseph, the son of Richard 
Baldwin of England, emigrated to the New England Colonies and 
settled in Milford, Conn., in 1639. His grandson, Jonathan, came 
to Waterbury in 1733, and bought the corn mill of the township, 
together with all the rights originally granted by the Connecticut 
Colony to Stephen Hopkins, the first owner of the mill property. 

Colonel Jonathan Baldwin, son of the milier, married Mary, a 
daughter of Ebenezer Bronson. Mary Bronson was a descendant 
of Isaac Bronson, one of the thirty-one original proprietors of 

* Lemuel Cook, born at Waterbuiv. Conn., in 1764, died at Clarendon, New 
York, in 1866, was accredited as the last surviving soldier of the Revolution. 



2()2 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Watcilnirv (1673) and also of Jolm Hrcjiison. who served in the 
l\'(]U()t War (1637). Seven members of the Melicent Porter 
CMiai)ter have the same ancestry as Mary IJronson, the mother of 
Melicent Porter. 

Colonel Baldwin, the father of Melicent Porter, was a large 
landliolder, and previous to the war had been entrusted with 
many oflices of responsibility. Melicent, his daughter, received 
a common school educaticjn, and also attended the private 
school of Mr. Badger, who was noted for his careful training 
in deportment. She was early taught tlie Westminster cate- 
chism and was evidently instructed in the inalienable rights 
of the individual both in politics and religion. In 1770 Meli- 
cent Baldwin, when twenty years old, became the wife of Isaac 
Booth Lewis, and removed with her husband to New Jersey 
at the time when the mutterings of discontent against British 
oppression were rife in the land. 

There were living in the town of Waterbury at various times 
above seven hundred men who had served in the Revolution, 
manv of whom were among the sufferers at Valley Forge — a 
direful chapter of the Revolutionary period in which the Water- 
bury men seem to liave l)orne a large part. Their condition 
during this dreadful winter is described in a local history* from 
which also the following data concerning the Valley Forge suffer- 
ers and the Battle of Moniucjuth are taken : " Clearing forests in 
December snows, with bare feet, without blankets, with little 
food and no money ; building log huts on the cleared grcjund, 
with benumbed lingers and chilled hearts; . . . falling down 
under the enforcing hand of illness, with no pillowing tender- 
ness t(j soften the fall." 

in the camp of eleven thousand men at V'allev Forge, three 
thousand soldiers were at one time too ill to })erform military duty^ 
while a powerful, well-fed, well-conditioned enemv was within 
twenty miles, enjoying all the comforts that Philadelphia afforded ; 
liesides, thousands of the more able-bodied soldiers at Valley 
Forge, after the labors and fatigues of the dav, were obliged to 
spend the night over fires, being without blankets and " having 
neither small clothes, shoes, nor stockings." 

*Thc History of Waterbury, Miss Sarah Pricliard's cliaptcrs. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



293 



No wonder is it that Wateibury appointed fifteen men to 
gather clothing for her destitute soldiers at Valley Forge ; and it 
is unfortunate that the historians of that time did not preserve in 
this connection the names of the unappointed women who spun 
and wove by daylight, and knit bv moon and candle light, for 
the bleeding feet and freezing bodies of their beloved ones suffer- 
ing in the camp at Valley Forge. 




THE PORTER HOUSE, WATERBURY. 
Built about 1750. 
(Within were slieltered and cared for nianv soldiers in the War of the American Revolution.) 

Out from this camp at Valley Forge came tlie soldiers who in 
June, 1778, were to fight and win the battle of Monmouth, over 
the British forces who were retreating from Philadelphia witli 
New York as their objective point. The heat at this season 
Avas so intense that many soldiers in both armies died from the 
heat alone. It is recorded "that tlic tongues of the soldiers were 
so swollen that they could not be retained in their mouths," and 
the distress for Avant of water was so great that the men tried to 
relieve it by holding bullets in their mouths. On that day, a 



294 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Waterburv woman, " Miliccnt," the daughter of Lieut. -Col. 
Jonathan Baldwin, helped to feed the soldiers of Washington's 
army, cooking for them from morning until night all the pro- 
visions that she could procure. 

At the time of the battle of Monmouth, Melicent Baldwin Lewis 
was the widow of Isaac liooth Lewis, and was living in New Jersey, 
within sound of the firing, probably at Mendham, the home of 
her husband's father. 

No record of the place or circumstance of Mr. Isaac Booth 
Lewis's death has been found. The date alone was recorded by his 
wife in her family Bible as April 29, 1777, more than a year previous 
to the battle in which she figured. Soon after the battle of Mon- 
mouth, Mrs. Lewis's father, Lieutenant-Colonel Baldwin, jour- 
neyed on horseback from Waterburv to New Jersey to escort his 
widowed daughter and her two young children to his own home. 
The little party set forth on the return journey, Colonel Baldwin 
carrying one child with him on his horse, Mrs. Lewis, the other 
with her on her horse. They came to a river ford which was so 
swollen that the horse of Mrs. Lewis in the midst of the stream 
lost its footing and went down with the current. Mrs. Lewis first 
tlirew her child to a ]:)lace of safetv upon tlie river bank and later 
effected her own escape. The child was four years old at the time 
and her name Avas Melicent. 

Iveturning to Waterbury — as patriotic a town as anv in Con- 
necticut if we may believe our records — Mrs. Lewis found herself 
in a military atmosphere well calculated to keep alive the patriotic 
spirit which slie had shown in New Jersey, and wliich was evi- 
dently appreciated by one of its soldiers, for not long after her 
return, on December 23, i77<S, she became the wife of Major 
Phineas Porter. 

Phineas Porter was one of the first to enlist from Waterbury in 
tlie service of the |:)atriots ; he went forth on June i, 1775, as 
captain of the first Waterbury company that served in the war, 
being with his company on the march toward New Yovk one 
whole month before General Washington took formal command 
of the American army. Captain Porter's company remained three 
weeks at Fairfield, and on June 27, joined its regiment (com- 
manded by General W^ooster) "below Rye," where they met 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 295 

Washington and his suite, wlio "passed in a genteel manner and 
there followed him a band of music."* 

Captain Porter's Company served at Harlem, Plumb Island, 
Shelter Island, and at East Hampton. Later it was ordered to 
Canada, going via Lake Champlain. The troops rowed up the 
lake by day, and slept in the woods by night, and finallv reached 
Montreal after much suffering from the fatigues of the march and 
from cold. On the return march, because of the ice in the lake, 
the men were forced to leave their boats and carry their baggage 
on their backs, in which condition they reached Ticonderoga. 
The Waterbury company on their return from Ticonderoga were 
on the march fourteen days before they reached Norfolk, Conn., 
where they arrived on December 9, 1775. 

Soon after the Canada campaign. Captain Porter served as 
Major on the staff of Colonel Douglas' regiment in General 
Wadsworth's brigade of state troops which had been raised in 
1776 to reinforce Washington's army at New Vcjrk. In the retreat 
from Long Island, Major Porter, who was not then the husband 
of Melicent Baldwin, was taken prisoner and confined in the 
noted Sugar House, where he witnessed the barbarity of Cunning- 
ham, and only escaped starvation "by pawning all the silver on 
his person." At Stillwater and at Saratoga, Lieutenant Colonel 
Baldwin, Melicent's father, and Major Porter, lier husband, were 
in active service with their regiment, which was commanded by 
Col. Thaddeus Cook. Major Porter later was commissioned 
Colonel of the Twenty-eighth Militia Regiment of Connecticut, 
which under the old organization had been known as the Tenth 
Regiment. Col. Baldwin's military career seems to liave been 
entirely confined to this regiment. 

Col. Phineas Porter was a lineal descendant of Dr. Daniel 
Porter, surgeon of the "river towns" of Connecticut in 1655, 
and of his son Daniel, one of the proprietors of Waterbury in 
1674. Apparentl}" to retain Dr. Porter as a member of the c<jm- 

* From the Diary of ludali Frisbie, History of Wateri^ury, Vol. I, p. 470; 
Miss Sarah Prichard's chapters on Waterbury in the Revolution. 

" Of the six hundred and eighty-nine men of Waterbury who were in the war, 
two left upon record their individual achievements, . . . Judah Frisbie and 
Josiah Atkins. The diary of Judah Frisbie may be found in Orcutt's History of 
Wolcott. It gives in detail the march of Captain Phineas Porter's Waterbury 
company to New York in 1775." — History of Waterbury, Vol. I, p. 470. 



296 THE PATRON SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

niuiiilv. land s^rants were bestowed by the original proprietors 
upon him, and his descendants became large landowners. 
Certain of these same lands remain in the family to the present 
time. 

The illustration used in this chapter sketch on page 293 "repre- 
sents, perhaps, the oldest house now standing within the ancient 
township. The date of its erection is not known, but it was built 
either bv Dr. Daniel Porter, the planter, or by his son Thomas 
Porter before 1765. . . . The old house is of special interest 
because in it were sheltered and cared for many soldiers in the 
War of the Revolution."* 

"To this house there came on one occasion so many soldiers 
tiiat thev completely filled every room. So weary were the men 
that thev fell upon the floors, exhausted for the want of sleep. 
All night Mrs. Porter and her attendants cooked for these men, 
stepping over them as they worked. "f J 

* History of Watcrhuiy, p. 714. f Ibid., p. 456. 

:}: The original document of the following statement — given under oath — con- 
cerning the Porter House, is frametl and hangs in the Historical Rooms of 
Watcrburv. 

I, Amos (iii'r llfu,, son of Dr. Nimrod Hull of Waterbury (Salem parish), 
dcc'd, hereby affirm that on November 24, 1836, I married, in the house now 
known as "the old Porter house," Emily M. Porter, daughter of Thomas 
Porter and Sally Warner ; granddaughter of Truman Porter and Sarah Thomp- 
son ; and great-granddaughter of Thomas Porter and Mehitahle Hine, and that 
the said McJiitahle f Hine ) Porter, at that date ninety-seven years of age, was 
present at the marriage. 

At some time between my marriage and her death, which took place June 1, 
1S37, she told me that on one occasion (the occasion I do not now recall) 
General Washington and a numerous retinue spent a night in the house, it 
being an inn. 

That although there were beds for General Washington and his stafl", the 
other soldiers so filled the living rooms of the house, that she, in her work of 
preparing food for them, was obliged to step over them, as they lay, sleeping 
from weariness, upon the floors. 

Amos (iiix Hull. 
In the presence of 

J.\s. !•:. O'Connor. 

Staie of Connecticut, / t,t rr t^ 1 o 

, ^, ,- ss. A'eiu Ilaven. Deceniher 14, iSgn. 

County of New Haven, * 

Personally appeared, Amos (iifi Hull, signer and sealer of the foregoing 
instrument and acknowledged the same to be his free act and deed before me. 

I.'VMEs E. O'Connor. 

Xotarv Puhlie. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 297 

Four of the descendants of Colonel Porter and of Melicent Bald- 
win, his wife, still live on the site of the Jonathan Baldwin 
honiestead in Waterburv, but neitiier Melicent Porter herself nor 
her descendants have lived in tlie Porter house where her hus- 
band's boyhood was spent. 

Probably the only relics of Melicent Porter which are still 
preserved are some teaspoons belonging to one of her descend- 
ants,* who also has in her possession Major Phineas Porter's 
orderly book, which contains the orders given out by him from 
dav to day while the army was in New York. Extracts from the 
book have been quoted in the History of Waterbury.f 

Of the children of Colonel and Melicent Porter, one, a son, 
Ansel, died from disease contracted in the war of 1012. Another 
child of Melicent Porter was the daughter, also named Melicent, 
whose life was saved on the return journey from New Jersey as 
previously told. She became the wife of David Taylor,J and her 
daughter married a cousin, David Taylor by name, who was a 
nephew of Nathan Hale. A great grandson of Melicent Porter, 
Capt. Henry Peck, a young man of great promise, "the only 
son of his mother and she a widow," gave his life for his country 
in our Civil War. 

Col. Phineas Porter died and Mrs. Melicent P(jrter was married 
a third time, in May, 1S08, when fifty-eight years old, to Mr. Abel 
Camp. She died in Plymouth, December 27, 1S24, and is buried in 

the hill town of ^Morris, Conn. 

Mary Cook. 

*Miss Katherine L. Peck. 

f Revolutionary Portion, by Miss Sarah Prichard. 

:}: Their grandson, Capt. Milton Haxtun, served in the United States Navy for 
more than thirtv vears. 




GIRLHOOD HOME OK SUJIUL DWIGHT KENT, WARREN, MASS. 
(Built by her fatlicr, Colonel Simeon Dwiglu.) 
General \Vashin2;ton was entertained here several times. 



SIBBIL DWIGHT KENT 






UFFIELD Chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution calls itself the Sibbil Dwight Kent Chap- 
ter, to commemorate first the honorable public record 
of the Dwight family, second the Revolutionary service 
of Sibbil Dwight Kent's husband, Major Elihu Kent, and lastly to 
commemorate Sibbil Kent's own patriotic spirit, preserved through 
familv record and tradition. 

The American founder of her family, John Dwight, came to 
America from Dedham, England, in 1634, and became one of the 
original settlers of Dedham, Mass. He was one of the founders of 
the first church organized in that town, in 1638. Her father, Col. 
Simeon Dwight, married Sibbil Dwight (daughter of Capt. vSamuel 
Dwight of Northampton), and having established his family in 
Western, now Warren, Mass., he became one of its prominent 
men, serving in many positions of responsibility. He was chosen 
to represent the town of Warren in the provincial Congress held 
at Cambridge in 1775 and 1776, and he was also appointed a 
member of the Committee of Correspondence, Safety and Inspec- 
tion. 

In all matters touching the Revolutionary struggle, where he 
had opportunity. Col. Simeon Dwight gave loyal and effective 
service. The house which he built in Warren, more than a cen- 
tury and a half ago, has withstood the wintry blasts and summer 
heats of the succeeding years, and stands to-day in fair preserva- 
tion. It is one of the historic houses of New England, having 
been the resting place of General Washington in his journeyings 
through eastern Massachusetts. At the foot of the stairway, in 
the lower hall, is a stationarv paneled box with a cover, in which 
Washington deposited his boots before retiring for the night. 

In this house Sibbil Dwight, the eldest of the thirteen children 
of Capt. Simeon Dwight and of Sibbil (Dwight) Dwight, his wife, 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



passed all the years of her childhood and early womanhood. She 
was born October 4, 1744, and on February 2, 1774, she became the 
wife of Maj. Elihu Kent of Suffield, Conn. 

Elihii Kent was the son of Samuel Kent of Suffield, and Abiah 
Dwig-ht, daughter of Nathaniel Dwight of Northampton. Major 

Kent's family were 
among the first set- 
tlers of Suffield. His 
g r eat- great-grand- 
father Kent married 
F ranees Woodall ; 
removed to Brook- 
field, Mass., in 1673, 
a n d to S u ffi e 1 d , 
Conn., in 1678. He 
was a member of the 
first board of select- 
men of Suffield and 
was re-elected to the 
same office for many 
years. Major Kent's 
great -gra n d f a t h e r , 
Samuel Kent, mar- 
ried Pri scilla. a 
daughter of William 
Hunter, and his 
grandfather, John 
Kent, married Abi- 
gail Dudley of Sav- 
brook, Conn. 

Sibbil Dwight was 
the third wife of 
Elilui Kent, also his 
second cousin— his mother, Abiah Dwigiit, being Sibbil's great 
aunt. Scarcely a year since their marriage had passed before the 
notes of war resounded through the land. The Lexington 
alarm summoned men from ploughshares and firesides tc. 
scenes of strife and blo,,dshed. Elihu Kent responded promptly 




l)0-\ AT Tin: FOOT OK THE STAIRCASE IN THE HAI.I. 
OF THE DWIGHT MANSION, WARREN, MASS., IN WHICH 
WASHINGTON PLACED HIS BOOTS FOR THE MGHT. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 301 

raising ninety-four men in less tlian twenty-four hours and 
marching with them to Boston. With him went his eldest son, a 
lad of seventeen or eighteen years, who during the progress 
of the war suffered greatly, having been captured by the enemy 
and kept in confinement a long time, receiving the usual hard 
usage which falls to prisoners of war. 

Sibbil Dwight Kent, with patriotism inherited from her family 
and enhanced by the exigencies of the times, subdued her fears, 
and, as in davs of chivalry, buckled on tlie armor of her knights 
and sent them forth to death or victorv. For years on each suc- 
ceeding dav, its duties and responsibilities over, the shades of 
night closed darklv round her lonely and defenseless little house- 
hold. Her four children,* busy and restless through the day, slum- 
bered at night in blissful unconsciousness of the danger threatening 
father and brother, but the heart and thoughts of the brave and 
lonely wife and mother were wnth her loved ones, footsore and 
weary on their tedious journeys tjr in their cheerless camps. 
Weeks succeed weeks in anxious watching and eager longing for 
tidings which came slowly and irregidarly, causing many a bitter 
pang to a heart already overburdened and fearfid. 

The Dwight familv for generations has stood not only for 
all that is highest and best in education and religion, bur is noted 
also for its enthusiasm and love of liberty ; military talent and 
executive ability have from the first characterized the family. 

Sibbil Kent, living in the days of war, inheriting the Dwight 
spirit of devotion and patriotism through both i)arents, and sur- 
rounded bv brave and loyal men, many of whom were among her 
own kindred, was strengthened by discipline, education and 
example for the manv trials and sacrifices wliich she had to meet 
during the vears of turmoil and strife which followed her marriage 
to Major Elihu Kent. 

Maj. Elihu Kent was a representative American patriot — brave, 
prompt — untiring. His zeal and energy for the welfare of the 

* Sibbil Dwight Kent gave birth to one child, a daughter who was born in 
1779 and named Sibbil Kent, and who was married in February, 1804, to Eleazer 
Davis Curtis (son of Deacon Joseph Curtis and of Phoebe Davis, his wife, 
Hanover, New Hampshire.) 

Three children were born to Eleazer Curtis and his wife Sibbil Kent : a son 
named Henrv Dwight Curtis, born in 1S06 ; a daughter named Maria Amelia 
Curtis, born'in 1808 ; and a second daughter named Sibbil Curtis, born in 1810, 
who died young. 



302 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



counlrv, manifested early in the struggle, were maintained 
throughout the entire war, and through his long term of public 
service he sought to uphold the cause of the colonies. 

Major Kent died February 12, 1814, his widow Sibbil, died 
July 9, 1822. In the old cemetery at Sullield Center, a tombstone 
bearing the following inscription stands at the head of their 
graves : 




lU'KIAL PLACK AND GRAVE.STUNK IN MKMUKY Ul' -SlUBIL DWIGIIT KL.N i AND 
OF MAJOR ELIHU KENT, HER HUSBAND, SUFFIELD. 



Memorial 

of 

Maj. Elihu Kent : 

who died Feb. 12, 1 8 14, 

j¥a. 81. 

Also, 

SlBBU. 

His wife, 

Died July 9, 1S22. 

^Et. 77. 

Footstonc — E. S. K. iiionoi;rain. 



Helen M. A7//^,^ 



SARAH WILLIAMS DANIELSON 




HE name of Danielson has been closely associated with 
the town of Killingly from its foundation, and when 
tlae Killingly chapter looked for a name which woidd 
link it with the Revolutionary period, the eminent 
military service of Col. William Danielson made the name of his 
wife, Sarah Williams Danielson, one which it would be an honor 
to bear. 

James Danielson, the grandfather of Col. William Danielson, 
was one of the earliest and most prominent settlers of Killingly. 
He laid out the beautiful cemetery between the rivers, and in 1728 
was the first person to be laid to rest within its bounds. The 
borough of Danielsonville was named for him and in honor of 
General James Danielson, his great grandson. 

The first James Danielson's son, Samuel, was the father of Col. 
William Danielson. William Danielson served in the French 
War, where he received the title of major and in 1775, when the 
Lexington Alarm rang through the county. Major William 
Danielson was prompt to respond for the town of Killingly. 
In 1776 he served as lieutenant-colonel with the state troops 
in Colonel Douglass' regiment. Later in the same year (Decem- 
ber, 1776), he was promoted to the rank of colonel of the 
Connecticut militia, and during 1777-78-79 he was in service with 
the Connecticut militia under General Spencer in Rhode Island. 

On March 21, 1777, at a meeting of the Council of Safety, the 
chief business apparently was to " establish the officers of the 
Alarm List," and under the doings of that day it is recorded that 
the council "filled up a large number of commissions for the 
Alarm List, officers for Colonel Danielson's [and two other] 
regiments." In August (1777) the name of William Danielson, 
Esq., colonel, appears again in the records of the General Assem- 
bly in connection with a certain change to be made in this list of 
officers. In civil affairs also he was a trusted leader, being several 



304 Tin-: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

times appointed deputy to the General Assembly and a justice of 
the peace, three successive appointments to each office having 
been made in the years 1777-78-79, when he was serving with the 
army. 

Sarah Williams, his wife, was a descendant of Robert Williams, 
who came to Roxburv in 1638. She was the youngest child of 
William Williams and of Sarah Stevens, the line of descent being 
Robert', Samuel", SamueP, Samuer, William"'. She was born in 
1737 and was married to William Danielson in 1758. Family 
records and tradition represent lier as an energetic and vivacious 
woman and as with her husband in active service for twenty 
vears. Patiently and courageously she upheld the hands of her 
husband through the vicissitudes and horrors of two wars, and 
in his prolonged absences directed the varied interests of a home 
and a large family. 

The cause of the patriots owed much to women like Sarah 
AVilliams Danielson, who survived the trials of two wars. In 
recognition of this, the descendants of the heroes of those wars 
have given her name to the patriotic chapter organized in the 
town where she lived. 

In 1779 Colonel Danielson retired from service, and at the close 
of the war returned to his native town. In 1786, on the shores of 
the Quinnebaug, he built the large white house which still stands. 
It was the home of Sarah Williams Danielson until her deatii in 
1809 at the age of seventy-two. 

Of the five children of Col. William and Sarah Danielson, Sarah 
was born November 14, 1759 ; James was born Januarv 18, 1761 ; 
Lucy was born October 11. 1764; William was born Maixh 4, 
1768; Mary was born Januarv 24, 1770. Only one son li^-ed to 
reach maturity, namely, (ien. James Danielson, who built cotton 
mills in Danielson, one of the oldest cotton manufactories in the 
country. His home was in Danielsonville and many of his 
descendants are now residents of the place. 

ManiiJa C. Butler Robinson. 

{.MKS. KIKNZI ROBINSON.) 

Kate li. I)a//ie/s(>/i. 



The few genealogical facts recorded here were furnished l)y Miss Emily 
Wilder Leavitt, Boston, Mass. 



HANNAH WOODRUFF 
HANNAH BENEDICT CARTER 
SABRA TRUMBULL 
ANNE BREWSTER FANNING 

REPRESENTING 

Captains in tbc Mar ot tbc IRcvolntion 

DANIEL SLOPER 
JOHN CARTER 
HEZEKLAH BISSELL 
CHARLES FANNING 



HANNAH WOODRUFF CHAPTER 
SOUTHINGTON 



HANNAH BENEDICT CARTER CHAPTER 
NEW CANAAN 



SABRA TRUMBULL CHAPTER 
ROCKVILLE 



ANNE BREWSTER FANNING CHAPTER 
JEWETT CITY 




■";^:^§^.^ 








SITKS OK Tin: I'KKNCH ENCAMPMENTS IN SOUTHINGTON. 

QIEEN STREET. ERENCH HILL, MARION. 



HANNAH WOODRUFF 




S a town, Southington had no separate existence until 
November, 1779. Its Revolutionary records there- 
fore are for some years interwoven with those of 
Farmington, but its residents bore their full share in 
all the patriotic proceedings of the period. Their jjrotest against 
the injustice of the Boston Port Bill and other oppressive British 
measures had no uncertain sound, and social ostracism was 
thoroughly meted out to their Tory neighbors. They seemed to 
think public confession good for the soul, and no greater sin than 
tea drinking was enough to bring down upon the culprit the 
terrors of both the law and the gospel. We find the following 
record, March 15, 1775 : "That Mr. Timothy Root be appointed 
to exhibit a complaint against Capt. Solomon Cowles and Martha 
his wife for making use of Tea contrary to ye association." The 
sequel is recorded March 23 of the same year, " That ye Confession, 
exhibited and subscribed by Capt. Solomon Cowles and Martha his 
wife for using Tea, contrary to ye association is satisfactory, pro- 
vided ye same be made public." The required public confession 
was made a vear later and reads as follows : "We, ye subscribers, 
hereby acknowledge we have violated ye association of ye Con- 
tinental Congress by making use of India Tea. Sensible of ye ill 
consequences of such a practice, we do freely express our sorrow 
for ye same and do give the strongest assurance of our deter- 
mination hereafter to adhere in every regard to ye Continental 
Congress." 

The same committee also attended to those who worked on the 
Continental Fast Day and to those merchants who charged too 
high prices for their goods, but all offenders after a public con- 
fession received absolution at the hands of the committee. Later 
much more important work was done by this committee in provid- 
ing for the needs of the families of soldiers and in forwarding 
supplies to the soldiers then in distant camps. 



3o8 Tin-: patron saints of Connecticut chapters 

After tlie battles of Concord .ind Lexington, a hundred men 
marched fiom the town of Southington to Boston, but according 
to the Hartford records the list of the names of these Southington 
soldiers was lost. Another detachment went to New York in 
1776, of Avhich unfortunately little is recorded. In March, 1777, 
two hundred and seventeen men were required to be raised in 
the town, and a l)ountv of fiftv dollars was offered to those 
who would enlist. So readilv did the men respond that only a 
few were left to till the soil, but the lack of laborers was supplied 
by the resolute women and voung boys who took the places of the 
men. 

After the separation of Southington parish from the town of 
Farmington in 1779, the patriotic spirit did not wane. The 
records shovv^ that many meetings were held to devise ways and 
means to assist in the struggle for independence. Money was 
very scarce, and wheat in instalments of ten bushels was voted as 
bountv. It is not recorded whether love of wheat or love of 
countrv was the controlling motive, but Southington furnished 
her full ([uota of men. The Southington patriots were widely 
scattered during the war, some having been with Washington on 
Long Island, some at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered, 
others at Fairfield, New London, and in other sections of Con- 
necticut. At the close of the war many returned home, some had 
died in prison, and one (at least) had died on the infamous prison 
ship Jersev, while of the fate of manv others no record has been 
found. They sleep in 

Graves which no man names or knows. 
Uncounted irraves, wliich never can be found. 
Graves of the precious " missing." 
■» * * * 

But nature knows her wilderness ; 

There are no missing in her numl)ered waj-s, 

In her great heart is no forgctfuhiess ; 

Eacli grave she keejjs, slie will adorn, caress. 

Washington is said to have passed through Southington in 1780 
on his way to Wethersfield and was entertained bv Jonathan Root, 
whose house is still standing. Lafavette is also said to have taken 
the same journey. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



309 



In June of 1781, the French army passed througli Suutliington. 
There are two k)calities where, until recently, the remains of tlieir 
encampments could be seen : one is on Queen Street, the other in 
Marion, where the site is still knovvn as French Hill. Count 
Rochambeaii was in command and he made his headquarters on 





, M Mi 






THE JONATHAN ROOT HOUSE, SOUTHINGTON. 
(Where Washington was entertained in 1780, now owned by Levi Neale, Esq.) 

the side of the mountain overlooking the Quinnipiac Valley. 
There are two traditions concerning these encampments ; one is 
that the first encampment was made when the French army was 
on the march to Boston, and the other encampment was made on 
their return from Boston. The French officers were entertained 
by Captain Barnes, who " kept tavern " in Marion in a house* 
which is still standing. The other tradition is that the two 
encampments were made by different detachments of the h^rench 
army at about the same time, June, lySi.f 

*The Captain Barnes house is just below the factory of L. D. Frost, Esq. 

f Mr. Rodney Langdon, who died in 1S99 at the age of ninety-nine, had in his 
collection French coins which he found while plowing in the lot on Oueen 
Street, while residents of the village of Marion have frequently found coins and 
bits of metal on French Hill. 



3IO THE TATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHATTERS 

Three names on the long list of Revcjlutioiiary soldiers who 
went from Southington are of special interest to the members of 
the Hannah Woodruff Chapter, all having been borne by our 
chapter heroine during her long life of over eighty years — the 
names of Woodruff, Newell, and Sloper. 

Hannah Woodruff was born July 7, 1730, and was a descendant 
of Matthew Woodruff and of his wife Hannah,* the first New 
England settlers of the Woodruff name. 

vSamuel, the son of Matthew and Hannah Woodruff, came to 
what is now Southington about 1698, and was its first white 
settler. His son David was the first white child born within the 
limits of the town. This early settler and his family had little 
other food besides fish and game except hasty pudding, made 
from pounded Indian corn. Samuel Woodruff is said to have been 
of great size and strength, of an excellent disposition and always 
friendly witli the Indians. It does not appear that he purchased 
land in Southington at this time, for there are no records showing 
it. He located at a spot well suited to the pursuit of hunting and 
fishing, the river separating his settlement from Wolf Hill on the 
west, which w\as infested with manv wild animals. Not far 
away were Indians of the tribe of Tunxis, who dwelt on Avhat has 
long since been known as Pudding Hill, a name which commemo- 
rates perhaps the first settler's daily rations. Later the Indians 
became unfriendly to the settlers and a fort was built a little 
distance north of Samuel Woodruff's house, the door of which is 
still in existence, showing marks of warfare. 

Samuel Woodruff's wife, Rebekah Clark, was the mother of many 
children, all of whom Avhen christened were given scriptural 
names, as follows : Samuel, Jonathan, Rebekah, Abigail, John, 
Ruth, Ebenezer, Daniel, David, Hezckiah and Rachel. Daniel, 
the eighth child, was the father of Hannah Woodruff, sponsor of 
the Southington Chapter, and was prominent later in church and 
state, the inscription on Hannah Woodruff's tombstone stating 
that she was the "daugliter of Deacon Daniel Woodruff." His 
wife was Lydia Smith and their children were Jonathan, Lydia, 
Rachel, Daniel, Rlioda and Hannah Woodruff. 

*The maiden name of Matthew Wood ruff's wife is given by one authority as 
Seymour, but has not been satisfactorily verified. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



'T 



HElDEHTKfil 

• BOOB, ^ 

-Indian For! lu ■ 

HINGTON 

BUILT, 

AD. IlOOi 



In such a large family there was little leisure. Even the merry- 
makings of those times were associated with the labor of providing 
the necessities of life — the principal social gatherings being the 
husking and paring "bees," and the quilling parties. 

On Sunday two long sermons awaited Flannah Woodruff 
when the church was reached. 
She may have wearied at tlic 
sixteenthly, or even earlier, 
and allowed her eyes to wan- 
der to the pew where young 
Asahel Newell sat, perhajis 
casting interested glances in 
her direction. In the face of 
all the austerities of the Puri- 
tan life about her, a little 
romance must have been very 
welcome to the young woman 
of that time. 

Hannah Woodruff w^as about 
twenty years old when she 
became the wife of Asahel 
Newell, who was a son of one 
of the oldest families of South- 
ington. Eight children were 
born to them ; the eldest, a son 
named .Solomon, was followed 
by a daughter named for her 
mother, Hannah Newell. 
There were six others, Lucy, 
Asahel, Mark, Charles, Samuel, 
and Diadamia. The responsi- 
bilities of motherhood came early to her, and she met them nobly, 
if the record made by her children, and the fact that early in her 
widowhood she was asked to become the second wite of Capt. 
Daniel Sloper, can be quoted as proofs. 

Asahel Newell died in 1769, leaving his wife with eight children 
varying in age from three to seventeen. Two years later Hannah 
Newell married Capt. Daniel Sloper, a widower with six children. 



\ 



il 




THK I.NDI.^.N KURT DUUK. 



312 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

and thus her familv of eiolit children was increased to one in which 
there were fourteen children to clothe and feed. After this mar- 
riage she removed from South End, Southington, to East Street, 
but neither of the houses in which her married life was spent is 
now standing. 

TJie following incident of her second wedding journey is related 
by a member of the Southington Chapter:'* The bride and 
groom made their journey on horseback and on their return home 
brought with them little Silence and Patience, the twin daughters 
of the groom, the bride and groom carrying each a twin. 

A few years later her husband and sons left her for the battle- 
field, and though all finally returned to her, the anxieties and 
trials occasioned by their absence were very grievous to bear. 
Eike Hannah of old, she consecrated her sons to God and 
countrw and we can also imagine her imitating in act if not in 
word the Spartan mother who charged the young warrior to 
return, "With vour shield or on it." 

The Southington company that went out to the war was com- 
manded by Capt. Daniel Sloper, and among those who formed it 
were his two sons, Daniel and Ezekiel Sloper, and his three step- 
sons, Mark, Asahel and Solomon Newell, making six from the 
immediate family of our heroine. Mark Newell enlisted as a 
])rivate and later assisted Dr. Theodore Wadsworth in the capacity 
of apothecary's clerk, and also aided in surgical operations. 
Solomon Newell was promoted first to the rank of ensign, later 
to that of lieutenant, and his tombstone gives him the title of 
captain. 

Capt. Daniel Sloper had many young men in his company, 
and seems to have feared that their courage would fail. It is said 
that just before a battle he called his men together and said to 
them : " Boys, if our mcnhers could see us thev'd cry, but we'll tlo 
what we're able." 

Hannah Woodruff was not, perhaps, a heroine in the usual 
sense of the word. She was not a Martha Washington nor a Molly 
Stark. She never even saw a battlefield or saved an enemy's life, 
vet ii may \)v ihat her claim to be called a heroine is a higher one 
than the claim of some who bear the title. There is no harder disci- 

•■• Mis. A. T. Hishop. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 313 

pline than to quietly attend to the daily duties of life when one's 
nearest and dearest are in danger. Surely " they also serve ^vho 
only stand and Avait." 

In the cemetery in Southington at South End, from whose 
summit is a beautiful view up and down the Farmington Valley, 




BURIAL PLACE OF HANNAH WOODRUFK AND OF HER SECOND HUSBAND, 
CAPTAIN DANIEL SLOPER, SOUTHINGTON. 

there is a tombstone* which marks the burial place of Hannah 
Woodruff and which bears the following inscription : 

In memory of 

Hannah, 

wife of Capt. Daniel Sloper, 

and daughter of 

Dea. Daniel Woodruff", 

died Oct. 27, 1S15 

aged 84 years. 

* Erected bv her granddaughter, Susan N. Porter. 



314 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Near bv is another stone whicli bears tlie following inscription : 

In mcnior}' of 
Catt. Damki. Sloper, 

who died 

Sept. the 9th, A.D. 1789 

in tlic 63d year of his age. 

Beneath tliis tonil) in iron slumber lies, 

Tiie man whose prayers witli morning incense rise, 

His evening prayers ascend the realms above 

Where pleasures dwell and all the air is love. 

A father to the poor in deep distress, 

A liclp to widows and the fatherless, 

hy death arrested, droops ; Beneath his power 

By death cut down and witliered in an hour. 

Thus was passed in scenes remote from the great Revolutionary 
struggle the uneventful life of Southington's chapter heroine. It 
was the usual life of mingled toil and sorrow, happiness and 
joys, but its rewards were great and came daily if the poet speaks 
truly wlien he savs : 

Karth holds but one true good, but one true thing. 

And this is it, to walk in honest wa\s. 

And patient, and with all one's heart belong 

In love unto one"s own. 

Ellen Tiittle Leiuis. 

i MKS. A. M. LtWIS.) 



The aiuhorities consulted in preparing this sketch were: The town records 
of Hartford, Farmington, and Southington, the Congregational Church records 
of Rev. William Robinson and Jeremiah Curtiss, and Timlow's History of 
Southington ; supplemented by family traditions and by recollections of the 
oldest inhabitants. 



HANNAH BENEDICT CARTER 




lANNAH BENEDICT CARTER was the daughter of 
Thomas Benedict, Jr., of Norwalk, Conn. In the line 
of family descent, she was of the fifth generation 
removed from Thomas Benedict, the founder of the 
Benedict family in America, who was born in Nottinghamshire, 
England, in the 3'ear 1617. Thomas Benedict, the first, was 
the only child of his parents, and "the family name had been 
confined to only sons for more than one hundred years and 
tlirough four generations." Mence, after the death of his parents, 
he did not know of the existence of another person of the name. 

When Thomas Benedict, the first, became of age in the year 
1638, he voyaged to New England and settled at first in the 
Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he married soon after Mary 
Bridgeiim, the daughter of his stepmother, who came from 
England in the same ship with himself. From this couple have 
descended all persons in xAmerica having the name of Benedict. 
After some years, Thomas Benedict and his family removed t(j 
Long Island, and in 1665, to Norwalk, Conn., where they estab- 
lished their permanent home. In each place Thomas Benedict 
was held in high esteem by the community, and was chosen to 
fill responsible offices. 

The Benedict homestead in Norwalk was on the street that is 
now called West Avenue. This homestead has been occupied by 
nine successive generations of the Benedict family and has passed 
direct from father to son — the will being the deed of tiie proi)erty. 
When the town of Norwalk was destroyed by the British cm July 
ii» i779> the Benedict homestead was one of the lew houses that 
were left standing, on account of its being used that day by the 
British for their wounded soldiers. Before leaving the place, 
however, the British set the liouse on fire, but timely aid saved it 



3l6 THE PATROX SAINTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

from destruction. In tliis liistoric house Hannah Benedict, the 
subject of tliis s]<etch, was born in tlie year 1733, and herein 1753 
she married John Carter. 

John Carter was a descendant of Samuel Carter, a progenitor of 
the Carter family in America, who was born in England about 
1665. Samuel Carter came to America when only a lad, about 
the year 1677, and landed at Boston. In 1686, lie settled in Deer- 
field, Mass., where he acquired in time many acres of land and 
where, according to the Deerfield records, he held various offices. 
lie was married in Deerfield in 1690, and his home was located 
within the fort, opposite the old meeting-house on the green.* 
The deed of his Deerfield property is dated June 14, 1694, and is 
still preserved in the family. Here Samuel Carter and his wife 
and seven children were living when Deerfield was attacked by 
the French and Indians on the night of February 29, 1703-4. 
During his absence from home that night, his entire family was 
taken captive and with many other captives were marched to 
Canada. His wife and three of their very young children Avere 
slain on the way. The four older children survived the hardships 
of the journey and arrived in Canada. f 

It is related by the historian of Deerfield that as Mr. Carter, 
unaware of the tragic events which had occurred, was returning to 
his home the next mcjrning in company with some of his neighbors, 
they saw in the distance the smoke and flames of the burning- 
town and desperately hastened on to the rescue, followed by 
thirty or forty others who came to their assistance from the 
towns nearby. In the fight that ensued on the meadow, the last 
savage was either killed or driven out of the town, and Samuel 
Carter carried back with him as a trophy of victory a blanket 
whicii he had captured from an Indian. Of the other plunder which 
was secured on this occasion by the pursuers, and afterwards sold 
for tlie general benefit, a list is on record in Avliich is the following 
item : " Samuel Carter, one blanket." 

Ebenezer, a lad of seven years, the youngest of the four children 
who were taken to Canada, was redeemed and restored to his 
latlier after a captivity of about three years. Meanwhile his 

■'■This house was still standinjr in 1S82. 

tI3eerficld Memorial, " The Redeemed Captive." Rev. John Williams. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 317 

father, from the desrjhition of Deerfield, his entire family being as 
he supposed dead, had removed to Xorwalk, Conn., where lie 
married Lois Sention (St. John), daughter of Mark Sention, and 
here he established a new home, where he lived until his death in 
1728. 

Ebenezer grew to manhood, and in the year 172 1 married 
Hannah, a daughter of Matthias -St. John of Norwalk. Their home 
was on "Clapboard Hills," Norwalk (now Carter Street, New 
Canaan), and they were among the earliest settlers of New Canaan 
parish. Ebenezer Carter's name appears on a memorial sent bv 
the pioneers of Norwalk to the Assembly at Hartford which 
was a "petition to form themselves into a societv called Canaan 
Parish &c.," and which, according to the Colonial Records, was 
granted Mav, 1731. 

The Canaan Parish records show that the first names to be 
added to the roll of membership, after the organization of the 
church in the new parish in June, 1733, were those of Eben- 
ezer Carter and Hannah Ids wife, who joined by letter from the 
Norwalk church, September 2, 1733. 

Ebenezer Carter was a lieutenant of the train-band of Canaan 
Parish, his commission being signed bv Governor Talcott, and 
dated October 1 1, 1733. Four years later, under date of November 
I-) 1737) he received his commission as captain of the same com- 
pany, also from Governor Talcott. Both commissions are still 
preserved. 

John Carter, the only son of Ebenezer and Hannah Carter, who 
lived to manhood, was born February 22, 1730, and in 1753 was 
married to Hannah Benedict. A new house was built the same 
year (1753) for the young couple opposite the home of John 
Carter's father, and upon the property that had been "laid out " 
to John Carter's grandfather, Samuel Carter, before the year 
1722, when it was "common undivided and unsecjuestered land." 
A large portion of this property is still held by the family of the 
Carter name. In this new home on "Clapboard Hills," nine 
children — seven daughters and two sons— were born to John and 
Hannah Benedict Carter. 



3l8 rilF. PATRON SATNTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Hannah, born 1754; married 1772 ; died 1792. 

Rachel, born 1756 ; married 1775. 

Deborah, born 1757; married 1780; died 1837. 

Sally, born 1760; married 1781. 1788, 1790; died 1808. 

Mercy, born 1761 ; married 1781. 

Elizabeth, born 1763 ; married 1783 ; died 184S. 

Ebenezer, born 1765 ; married 1788, 1795 ; died 1842. 

Samuel, born 1768 ; married 1789 ; died 1811. 

Polly, born 1771 ; married 1794 ; died 1S50. 

John Carter was one of the Committee (supposed to be the 
Committee of Safety) appointed at a town meeting held in Nor- 
walk, Conn., December 5, 1774, as recommended by the Conti- 
nental Congress at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. John Carter 
served later as second lieutenant of the fifth company in Colonel 
Swift's battalion, wliich was raised July, 1776, and detailed for ser- 
vice in the vicinity of Ticonderoga under General Gates. One 
month later, August, 1776, he served as first lieutenant in Capt. 
Daniel Benedict's company, ninth regiment of the Connecticut 
Militia, in New York City. Under a subsequent organization of 
the State Militia the following season, 1 776-1 777, this company was 
continued in the command of Lieut. John Carter, General Wooster 
commanding, and in the following March John Carter was 
appointed captain. The Carter family has in its possession the 
original commission, which is dated May 13, 1777, and signed 
by Jonathan Trumbull, Governor; George Wyllys, Secretary. 
The family has also in its possession many interesting Revolu- 
tionary papers which belonged to Captain Carter, one being the 
original order dated at Greenwich, Conn., March 13, 1777, and 
addressed to Capt. John Carter — " to march his comj^any to 
Ilorseneck and report to Col. John Mead of above Reg't." 

Capt. John Carter also commanded a company of " Minutcmen," 
whose duty it was to keep guard along the coast of Long Island 
Sound and to be ready at a moment's notice to repel any 
hostile party that might appear. On March 13, 1777, a portion of 
tlie troop was detached as a lookout and guard near '' Old Well " 
(now South Norwalk), under the command of Lieut. Jeremiah 
Heard Luis, with whom were stationed three men from Canaan 
Parish and ten men from Norwalk. The night was dark and 
stormy, and tlie guard took shelter in the hotel kept by Capt. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICA N^ REVOLUTION. 319 

Samuel Richards. In the course of the evening, tliey were 
surrounded by a party of British and Tories who came over from 
Long Ishmd. The entire guard was captured and conveyed across 
the Sound to Huntington, and from there to New York, where 
they were incarcerated in the old "Sugar House" prison, and 
where all died except the three men from Canaan Parish.* 

In January, 1780, Capt. John Carter, in conjunction with Cap- 
tain Lock wood (probably Isaac Lock wood from Stamford), com- 
manded a party which made a midnight attack upon Colonel 
Hatfield at Morrisania, N. Y., a brilliant exploit which resulted in 
the capture of Colonel Hatfield, and also of a captain, lieutenant, 
quartermaster and eleven privates of the English army.f 

During the exciting times of the Revolutionary War, Mrs. 
Carter encouraged and aided her husband and his soldiers, their 
home being the scene of many military gatherings. One evening 
in February, 17S0, a company of thirty mounted soldiers, or 
"troop of horse," came to their place to stay over night. The 
following morning (which was the anniversary of Captain 
Carter's birthday), after Mrs. Carter had prepared a breakfast for 
the soldiers, she stood in the front porch of the house and 
watched them as they rode away. She was soon after taken 
ill with a congestive chill, which was followed by apoplexv, and 
in a few hours her useful life came to an end. Thus the last work 
of her hands was given to the service of her country. Her death 
occurred on February 22, 1780. She was buried on the church 
liill opposite the Congregational Ciiurch in New Canaan.]; 

Captain John Carter had in his wife a true helpmate. vShe 
looked well to the ways of her household and excelled in the 
art of s])inning, as the soft, fine linen which is still preserved — 
the work of her hands — gives abundant evidence. Her excel- 
lence of character is a local and familv tradition. There is 
also the testimony of her eldest son, who gave his mother's name 
to his daughter, and a generation later, taking his infant grand- 

* From the narrative and life of Levi Hanford. f Ibid. 

:l:The body of Hannah Benedict Carter was removed in 1895 and placed beside 
that of her husband, and the chapter had a granite boulder set in the Carter 
famil)^ lot to the memory of Capt. John Carter and his wife Hannah Benedict 
Carter. 



.S20 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

daughter on his knee, said : " I wish this cliild to be named 
Hannah Benedict, after my motlier, and if siie makes as good a 
woman as my mother was, it is all I can ask," — an incident which 
is well remembered by the writer of this sketch. She was tenderly 
loved by her family, her memory cherished and her name perpetu- 
ated by her descendants. Each of her nine childi-en named a 
daughter Hannah Benedict, and great grandchildren and grand 
nieces in the present generation still bear her name. 

The Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter is unique among Connec- 
ticut chapters in having its membership chiefly composed of 
descendants of the woman for whom the chapter is named, 
twenty-two being her direct descendants and five of her nine chil- 
dren being re])resented. Five members are descended from her 
daughter Deborah, one from her daughter Sally, six from her son 
Ebenezer, four from her son Samuel, six from her daughter Polly. 

Widely sejiarated are their homes : New York, Washington, 
New Brunswick, N. J., Brooklyn, Decatur, 111., Fredericks- 
burg, Va., Yonkers, N. Y., Newark, N. J., Auburn University 
of Alabama, De Land University, Florida, and New Canaan, 
Conn., being the residences of the descendants of Hannah 
Benedict Carter. Thovigh remote from each other, their common 
ancestry has brought them together in spirit and in purpose, and 
the result is the formation of the New Canaan Chapter of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution, and thus is perpetuated 
the name and memory of one who has been their i)ride and an 
inspiration for several generations. 

Cornelia Carter Coiusiock. 

(mKS. Al.HKRT S. CO.MSTOCK.) 



XoTK. — Mrs. Cornelia Carter Comstock, the contributor of the Hannah 
Benedict Carter sketch, died April 21, 1S98. She was the first Regent of the 
Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter, its most efficient organizer and an influential 
member of the society in Connecticut. Very early in the history of her chapter, 
she published a sketch of Hannah Benedict Carter, genealogical sketches of the 
Benedict and Carter families, Captain Carter's record in the Revolution and 
the lines of descent of chapter members from their chapter heroine. The 
reverse side of the boulder placed to the memory of Hannah Benedict Carter 
bears the following inscription : " In Loving Memory of Cornelia Carter 
Comstock, First Regent H. B. C. C, D. A. R." 



SABRA TRUMBULL 




ABRA TRUMBULL, dauohter of Sabra ((raylord) 
and Captain Ammi Trumbull, Jr., was born Novem- 
ber 5, 1742, in Windsor, one of the oldest of 
Connecticut towns, situated on both sides of the 
" Ouo-neh-ta-cut " or the "long, flowing river," as its Indian 
name signifies. The town of Windsor at that time covered the 
territory between Simsbury on the west and Tolland on the east, 
and included a part of what is now the town of Vernon. 

Capt. Ammi Trumbull, Jr., was fourth in descent from Deacon 
John Trumbull, who came from Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, in 
1637, and settled in Rowlev, Mass. Deacon John Trumbull's son 
Joseph removed to Suffield, Conn., in 1670, and was the founder 
of the Trumbull familv in Connecticut, one of the distinguished 
families of the state. 

Among Joseph Trumbull's lineal descendants are governors, 
judges, legislators, ministers, historians, a i:)oet, and an artist. 
His great grandson John was an aide-de-camp to General 
Washington, and became famous for his historical paintings 
and portraits. He painted four large pictures for compart- 
ments in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, and he also 
painted portraits of Revolutionary officers, and portraits and 
miniatures of George and Martha Wasliington. Prominent among 
the grandsons of Joseph Trumbull was Jonathan Trumbull, 
Connecticut's war Governor, and Capt. Ammi Trumbull, Jr., 
Sabra Trumbull's father. 

In the spring of 1744, Captain Ammi Trumbull, with five hun- 
dred other Connecticut men, joined the companies that made the 
gallant and successful attempt to capture from the French, Louis- 
berg, the "Gibraltar of North America." He went on the 
expedition to Deerfield, December 19, 1745, and was also one of 
three men fnjm Windsor who responded to the Fort William 
Henry Alarm in 1757. 
21 



322 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Dr. Horace Hiishncll says in his "Historical Estimate of Con- 
necticut " : " We are accustomed to speak of the War of the 
Revolution, but these earlier wars, so little remembered, were far 
more adventurous and required stouter endurance." 

Sabra Trumbull's husband, Hezekiah Bissell, captain and 
commissary in the War of the Revolution, was fifth in descent 
from John Bissell who settled in Windsor, Conn., previous to 




HOME OF C.Vl'lAl.N lH:/A:Kl.\n UlSSEl.L A.NIJ OK lUS WIKK, SAHRA TRrMIULL. 
(The house is now slamlin-; in Scantic, East Windsor, ami was built bc-foro the Revolution.) 



1640, and who was the founder of the Bissell fainilv in Windsor. 
Hezekiah Bissell was born in Windsor May 20, 1737, and died 
November 14, 1831, within a few rods of the spot where he was 
l)orn. He was a man of strong character and high integritv .and 
was prominent in religious, civil, and military affairs. Captain 
Bissell's training in the French and Indian Wars prepared him 
for the important part he was to take in the War of the Revolu- 
tion. He served through the entire war of the Revolution, with 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:MERICAX REVOLUTIOxX. 323 

the successive ranks of ensign, lieutenant, and captain, besides 
doing much effective work as commissary. He was several times 
stationed at Fort Ticonderoga, once with General Putnam through 
a severe winter when he made a copy of the plan of the fort. 

In 1760, when Captain Bissell was about twenty-three years of 
age, he was married to Sabra Trumbull, and together they lived 
through a portion of those troublous times preceding the War of 
the Revolution. On October 25, 1768, Sabra Trumbull Bissell 
died, leaving one little daughter who bore the significant name of 
her mother — a name which of old inspired media'val knights as, 
fighting for fair ladies and the suppression of evil, thev recalled 
the legend of St. George slaying the dragon and freeing the " Fair 
Sabra," King Ptolemy's daughter. 

This little girl Sabra grew to womanhood amid the storm and 
stress of war. vShe was twice married and lived to see her chil- 
dren's children. Her first husband was John Loomis, her second 
husband was Walter Goodale. When General Lafayette made 
his last visit to this country (in 1824), he passed through Oakland 
with a few of his officers, and Sabra Bissell Goodale, who was 
then a woman of sixty years, had the pleasure of entertaining 
him in her home at Oakland, near Manchester, Conn.'^ We 
have no actual record of the dinner given to the distinguished 
guests, but the old blue dishes used on that occasion were treas- 
ured heirlooms in the family for generations, but time and acci- 
dent have laid the destroying finger on them, and only one 
platter and a bowl remain. 

To the Rockville Chapter the name of Sabra Trumbull revives 
not only the memory of one of the 103'al, helpful women of 
Tolland County in colonial days but ]:)erpetuates also the time- 
honored name of Trumbull, which like the name of Sabra, has 
become a synonym of truth, virtue, and honor. 

May Risley Adams. 

(MKS. FRANK M. ADAMS.) 

*The house in which Mrs. Sabra (Bissell) Goodale entertained Lafayette in 
Manchester is not standing, but the site is now owned by Mr. N. T. Pulsifcr. 



References used in preparing this sketch were : New England Historical and 
Genealogical Register, Memorial History of Hartford CouiUy, Stiles's History of 
'Ancient Windsor, Colonial Records, State Records. 



-4 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 







t>3 .^1 




■«: 



i 



1^ ^ 




L^ 




ANNE BREWSTER FANNING 




XXE BREWSTER, daughter of Simon and Anne 
(Andros) Brewster, was born September 19, 1753, in 
the northern part of Preston, which is now the town 
of Griswold. She was a direct descendant of Ekler 
William Brewster of the Mayflower. Very little is known of 
her early life, but as it was spent in this little town among the 
hills, her girlhood was probably quiet and uneventful. That her 
training and circumstances were such as to develop a strong and 
self-reliant character, is shown by the story of her later life. 

When twentv-one years of age she married Charles Fanning 
(afterwards captain). They settled in Jewett City and here was 
born to them a fannly of eleven children : 



Henky, born February 21, 1775. 
Betsey, born January 2, 1777. 
Anna, born May 23, 1779. 
Sophia, born January 22, 1781. 
Charles, born December 13, 17S3. 
M.\RIA, born September 26, 1786. 



Patrick, born August 23, 1788. 
Franklin, born August 19, 1791. 
Frederick, born November 17, 1793- 
Thomas, born November 4, 1795- 
|oHN, born April 5, 179S. 



The year following their marriage the War of the Revolution 
began, and the country's call for help was heard far and near. 
Mrs. Fanning was filled with patriotic zeal and she readily 
assented to her young husband's enlistment and encouraged him 
to continue in the service. Captain Fanning's record as a soldier 
was a most honorable one. He enlisted December 16, 1775, and 
was in the service with occasional furloughs until January i, 1783, 
in the various capacities of private, ensign, second and first lieu- 
tenants, and paymaster with rank of captain. He was on duty at 
New London, New York, and Peekskill, was with Washington in 
Pennsylvania, took part in the battle of Germantown, and in the 
defense of Fort Mififlin, wintered at Valley Forge, and was at the 
battle of Monmouth. From this record it is evident that Captain 



3^6 



THE PATRON' SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Fannino; had a share in some of the most thrilling experiences of 
the war : and it is a family tradition that he had the honor of an 
intimate acquaintance with General Lafayette. 

At the close of the war, when the association called the Society 
of the Cincinnati was formed by the officers of the American 

army to commemo- 
rate the success of 
the Revolution, Cap- 
tain Fanning was one 
of its charter mem- 
bers. His certificate 
of membership, from 
which a photograph 
was taken to illus- 
trate this article, is 
in the possession of 
his granddaughter.* 

During Captain 
Fanning's long and 
eventful militarv ser- 
vice he was sustained 
by the brave and 
patriotic spirit of his 
wife. She was ambi- 
tious for his progress, 
thoroughlv in svm- 
pathy with him in his 
devotion to the cause 
of liberty and fully 
aware of the issues 
at stake in this War 
for Independence. 
When peace was at last declared Captain Fanning returned to 
his wife and family in Jewett City, and here they passed many 
years in peaceful pursuits and in a harmonious home life. Some 
of the enterprising and influential citizens of the town to-day are 
descendants of Captain and Mrs. Fanning, who were among the 
founders of the place, and in the local chapter of the Daughters 
of the American Revolution are several members who trace their 

*Mrs. Katharine Fanning Congdon of Willimantic, Conn. 




.VNNE BREWSTER FANNING. 



(From a silhouette.') 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 327 

descent from Anne Brewster Fanning, the honored sponsor of 
Jewett City chapter. 

Captain Fanning survived his wife by nearlv a quaner of a 
century, her death occurring in 1S13. while he lived until 1S37. 

They were buried near each other in the Jewett Citv cemeterv, 
and on their tombstones are the following;- inscriptions : 




(.Preston, now Gris-s-old. ■ 



CSASJJES Faxmnc. Ej^.. 

Died 

March 22"-. 1S37, 

Aged 57 rears. 

In 

Memory of Mrs. Anne. 

wife of Chasles Fanning. 

Esq.. who died May 29". 

1S13, in the 60^ rear 

of her age. 

/jii Broiuning LaaJ. 

Sophia Z. Bennett Burnharn. 

Roberta Hall am Bm'--^' '■ 




HOUSK IN (;UKEN's farms, conn., KlIl.T KY DR. HEZEKIAH RIl'LEY ABOUT I/So. 



DOROTHY RIPLEY 
FREELOVE BALDWIN STOW 

IRcprcscutino IRclict Scnncc 

HEZEKIAH RiPLEY, CHAPLAIN 

Relief to yallev Forge Sufferers 

CAPTAIN STEPHEN STOW 

%elief to British -Prisoii Ship l^ietiiiis 



FREELOVE BALDWIN STOW CHAPTER 
MILFORD 



DOROTHY RIPLEY CHAPTER 
SOUTHPORT 




JMIliiJMiAa^MlMAiliMlM 



> 




DR. HKZICKIAH RIPLEY S STUDY CHAIR. 



DOROTHY RIPLEY 




[^E fifteenth Connecticut chapter D. A. R. was organ- 
ized in Southport, with the name of Eunice Burr ; a 
part of its charter members and officers being residents 
of the adjacent village of Fairfield. But as it soon 
became clear that the best interests of the order would be served 
bv the formation of another chapter, the Fairfield members colo- 
nized in April, 1894, taking, as was most appropriate, the name of 
tlie beautiful and heroic Mrs. Burr ; while the original chapter 
was re-named Dorothy Ripley,* in memory of the wife of Rev. 
Dr. Hezekiah Ripley,f a chaplain in the Revolutionary army, and 
for fifty-four years pastor of the church in Green's Farms, then 
within the boundaries of the town of Fairfield, though now 
included in those of Westport. 

Dr. Ripley was a man of great influence and personal power ; 
of such uncompromising patriotism as to be especially obnoxious 
to the British authorities, who hated all "pulpit drummers," and 
openly avowed their intention "to make Dr. Ripley's head a but- 
ton for a halter." | 

* Dorothy Biintnall, boin July, 1737; died August, 1831 ; married llezekiali 
Ripley, January 9, 1765 ; daughter of Rev. (and Capt.) William Brintnall (Yale 
i72i)and Zeruiah Buckminster his wife; granddaughter of Thomas Brintnall 
and Hannah Willard his wife (who was daughter of Major Simon Willard of 
Groton, Mass., and Elizabeth Dunster his wife); great-granddaughter of 
Thomas Brintnall of Boston (1665) and Esther his wife. 

f Hezekiah Ripley, born in Windham, Conn., February 14, i743; died 
November, 1831. Yale, A.M., 1763, Socius 1790-1817, S.T.D.,Nov. Cjcs. 1802; 
son of David Ripley and Lydia Carey his wife ; grandson of Joshua Ripley and 
Hannah Bradford his wife (daughter of Dep. Gov. William Bradford and Alice 
Richards his wife ; granddaughter of Gov. William Bradford and widow Alice 
Southworth his wife) ; great-grandson of William Ripley of Hingham, Norfolk, 
England, and widow Elizabeth Thaxter, his wife. 

X Miss S. F. Bartiett of Norwich. 



3,32 TPIE I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

A oreat-gninddiuigliter says: '"Madam Ripley had many anx- 
ious hours ; for her husband spent many a niglit walking the shore, 
watching for the enemy," while the wife and mother remained at 
home with her four little children. Many attempts were made 
to capture Dr. Ripley, but usually some friend or parishioner 
learned of the plot in time to give him warning. Once, however, 
he was taken, but the sentinels on guard grew drowsy and their 
prisoner escaped, possibly aided by some exercise of his wonder- 
ful strength and activity, of which he himself testified, that ''when 
a young man, let a line be iield so that he could walk under it and 
he could jumj) over it." * 

No portrait remains of either Dr. or Madam Riplev, for in 
Tryon's raid on the Connecticut ccjast their home, as well as the 
church, and every house on the shore road was burned ;f and 
library, furniture and papers were all destroyed. Madam Ripley 
and her children escaped with difficulty, being fired upon bv the 
brutal soldiers as they fled. J 

All family and local traditions give the picture of a woman 
whose courage and high spirit proved her a worthy descendant of 
Capt. William Brintnall and Major vSimon Willard, while her thrift, 
executive ability and unfailing generosity made her, in the 
noblest sense, a helpmeet for the man who, without relinquisiiing 
his pastoral duties, and whose name cannot be found on the pay- 
roll, served his country as chaplain, § of whom it is said, that "his 
commanding form was often seen stooping over the couch of the 

•••Mi. II. W. Ripley. 

•|- After the devastation of Fairfield in Tryon's raid in 1779, ^^- Ripley bought 
in Compo Street the frame of a barn which had never been covered, moved it to 
its present site, and finished it for a dwelling house. This house was occupied 
by him and his wife until their death in 1831, and is now in the possession of 
Mr. John Elwood. Sec illustration page 328. 

t Miss Bartlett. 

i; In " Life and Letters of Aaron Burr," by Matthew L. Davis, Harper tV' Bros. 
New York, 1S37, vol. IL, page 102, is given a letter from Mr. Samuel Rowland, 
of Fairfield, to Commodore Richard V. Morris, dated June 29, 1814, covering a 
sworn certificate of Dr. Hezekiah Ripley, to the effect that on the fifteenth day 
of September, 1776, he was the officiating chaplain of the brigade then com- 
manded by Gen. Gold S. Silliman, and in that capacity was able to testify that 
" Mr. Burr's exertions, bravery and good conduct, were the principal means of 
saving the whole of that iirigade from falling into the hands of the eneniv." 



DAUGHTERS OF Tllli AMERICAN REVOLUTION. ;i^;'y 

sick and wounded, and whose eloquent voice never failed to ani- 
mate the troops."'^' 

In 1865 the church in (xreen's Farms celebrated its one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary. Mr. Hezekiah W. Ripley, of Harlem, 
the oldest living grandson of Dr. and Madam Ripley, then in his 
seventieth year, made an address at that time, from which a few 
paragraphs are here quoted : 

" I came to live with my grandparents wiien I was a little less 
than ten years old, and remained with them between four and five 

years During the War of the Revolution, like the other 

Congregational clergy, my grandfather was a decided patriot. 
.... To show that patriotism is not extinct in his family, I 
may mention that in the late war, four of his great-grandsons bore 
arms ; one of whom lost an arm in the second battle of Bull 
Run 

I never heard of his firmness failing him but once : and then 
his feelings were sorelv tried, for the peace and unity of his 
church Avere threatened. I had the account from my grandmother. 
The British burned his meeting house, which stood in the south 
part of the parish, a little west of Muddy Brook. On the return 
of peace, it was resolved to build a new house, and a difficulty 
arose as to the location. Two parties were formed who were 
very earnest in their efforts, <jne to place the new house on tlic 
site of the old one, and the other to locate it further north. Tlie 
latter carried their point. Timber was at length prepared, and on 
a Sabbath a notice was put up that next day the frame would be 
raised; and under it, the expressive words ' Raise, if you dare.' 
Dr. Ripley had held through the whole dispute the most perfect 
neutralitv. No effort of either party could get any expression of 
opinion from him. When he saw these notices, he went home, 
told his wife, and said ' I know they will fight, and I shall ^ take 
my horse in the morning and get away from it.' ' No, sir,' said 
she ; ' if they are going to fight, your place is right betvyeen 
them.' He yielded," reniained at his post, the frame was raised, 
and the house was finished ; but the state of feeling that existed 
is indicated by the fact that a prominent member of his churcli, 
an estimable old gentleman as I knew him, said : 'If I liad not 
loved my minister, I never would have gone into it.' I will here 
say of my grandmother, that I believe she was every way worthy 
of such a husband. There always appeared to be uniform kind- 
ness and harmony between them. She was a good old lady, what 
we call rather high-spirited, naturally ; and I have reason to sup- 

*" Washington and his Generals," bv 1. T. Headlcy. Scribncr .V Sons, 1864. 



334 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

pose, from incidents, one related by lierself, more impulsive in 
her younger days than when I knew her ; but these qualities had 
been softened and chastened by Divine Grace, and the influence 
of her husband. The law of kindness was in her tongue. Yet 
she had a good deal of energy, and a good command of language, 
which could be occasionally manifested. Let me give you an 
instance which I had from a younger brother, who took my place 
in the household. It will show how they moved together. 

One morning, at breakfast, a man came in, much of w^hose con- 
duct was such as no one could approve. I had heard her, some 
years before, give him an admonition which I well remember. 
It was not an explosion, but a very energetic remonstrance, 
expressed in very decided language. What he had now been 
doing I do not know, but she gave him a lecture which he must 
have remembered to his dying day. Dr. Ripley probably knew 
that it was all deserved, and that she was managing the case better 
than he could. He heard her through quietly, and then said, 

'Uncle , will you have some breakfast?' 'No, sir, I thank 

you ; Madam Ripley has given me breakfast enough.' Yet she was 
kind to the poor. I could give the names of individuals, includ- 
ing the one referred to, who occasionally left the house with 
stomachs more comfortable than they had when they entered it. 
She never used liarsh words : as to her treatment of her household 
and all who deserved it, I can remember nothing but kindness. 
She had the same kindness of manner to the poor as the rich ; and 
I am desirous that she should stand bv tlie side of lier husband, 
as his helper in the Lord."'"' 

In a letter written in reference to this address, by Mr. II. \V. 
Ripley to Mr. E. B. Adams, of Green's Farms, he says : " I should 
wish to retain wliat is said about mv grandmother. I hold her 
memory in the utmost respect, and she is likely to be overlooked 
by others." 

The Dorcases of the parish had again and again clothed and 
comforted a family whose improvidence, or to use the e.xpressive 
Yankee word " shiftlessness," made the work of help about as 
successful as pouring water into a sieve. The mother of the 
ladyf who told the story, protested vigorcnisly against further 
effort, saying it was worse than useless for her and her friends to 

* Celebration iu Green's Farms, Oct. 26, by Rev. H. |. Relyea, Pastor, New 
York, 1865. 
f The late Mrs. Giirdon Perry of Southport. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 335 

work and deny themselves, only to see their aid misused and 
wasted 

Madam Ripley replied with dignity : " It is given to us to know 
how to save and manage thriftily, just that we may be able to 
help those who have not the gift of thrift and management." 




A WASHINGTON PITCHER MADE FOR AND PRESENTED TO REV. HEZEKIAH RIPLEY. 
(Belonging now to his descendant, A\'iIIiam Chauncey Ripley of Newark, N. J.) 

In Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, Rev. T. F. Davies,* 
one of Dr. Ripley's successors in the pastoral charge, relates tlie 
following incident : " Dr. Ripley mentioned to me that when 
Washington (after having been appointed Commander-in-CIiief 
of the American army) was on his way to Boston, he passed 
through Green's Farms, the Dr. mounted his horse, and joined 
the cavalcade. They stopped at Bulkley's inn, in Fairfield, and I 
think dined there. ' After passing from the house, and while 

* Installed at Green's Farms in 1829. 



336 THE PATRON SATNTS OF COXXECTICUT CHAPTERS 

standins;- in front of it, waiting for tiieir horses, Wasliington, 
continuing his conversation on public affairs, passed his finger 
through tiie button hole of the Doctor's coat and said that if the 
Americans could prolong the contest for one year, they would 
ultimately succeed ; because by that time arms and ammunition 
could be obtained, and they would be invincible. 

Dr. Ripley was a man of commanding presence : of tall, athletic, 
dignified frame. His line countenance beamed with intelligence 
and kindness, yet there was something in his look which gave 
assurance of unyielding firmness. I think it would be difficult to 
find two men who woiild be a finer subject for a painter than those 
two patriots conversing together under such interesting circum- 
stances. Dr. Ripley accompanied General Washington to Strat- 
ford Ferry." 

Ml-. William A. Riplev of Newark, X. J., a great-grandson of 
Rev. lle/ekiah Riplev, relates the following incident, which he 
learned from his grandmother. During the exceptionally severe 
winter of 1779-1780, Gen. Washington's headquarters were at 
.Morristown, X. J., and the soldiers suffered extremely from all 
sorts (jf destitution. Rev. Hezekiah Ripley was put in charge of 
an ex])edition consisting of several men and two wagons, and 
sent tln-ough the neighboring countrv to collect clothing and 
general supplies — shoes being especially needed. He came as 
far east as his own parish of Green's Farms, with comforting 
success. 

A member of Doroihv Riplev Chapter, D. A. R., remembers to 
have heard her grandmother describe her own wedding, Dr. 
Ripley being the officiating clergyman, saying that she opened 
the ball with Dr. Ripley as partner, it being his custom to dance 
the first cpiadrille with the bride of the evening. 

Another incident is related by the great-granddaughter, to whose 
reminiscences we are so much indebted. It was the custom for the 
minister to kiss the bride, and Dr. Riplev had foHowed the cus- 
tom, until he was notified that his services would be required by 
two brides at nearly the same time. One was Miss J., a girl of 
good family and lovely character ; the other neither deserved nor 
received the respect of the coiiHr.unity. Miss J., whose weddmg 
came first, was told that he should not kiss her at the time of 
the marriage, as anotlier wedding was near at hand, and he ivoald 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 337 

not kiss that bride. Miss J.'s wedding passed off with no salutation 
from the minister. When he had married tlie st'cond couple, he 
soon rose to depart, when the mother of the bride called out, 
" Dr. Ripley, there is one thing- you have not done." " What is 
that, madam ?" "You haven't kissed the bride." "Oli well," he 
replied, "kissing has gone out of fashion. I married Miss |. the 
other day and did not kiss her." 

Kissing did go out of fashion with him, as lie never thereafter 
kissed a bride at a marriage. 

In August, 183 1, after sixty-six years of wedded life. Madam 
Ripley died. * One who was present during the last night has 
told the writer, that when all was over, the last ministries per- 
formed, and that which had been loving wife, tender mother and 
faithful friend, lav " pale, and white and cold as snow," Dr. Riplev, 
too infirm to walk, was brought in a wheeled chair to the bedside, 
in the grev chill of dawn. Long and silently he gazed at the 
irresponsive face ; then making the signal to be taken away, said, 
with slow^, painful tears rolling down his cheeks : " She was the 
light of mv eyes." Lovelv and pleasant in their lives, they were 
not long divided by death ; for in November Dr. Ripley and his 
wife were re-united. 

For Madam Ripley no record of achievement is claimed save 
that of great patience ; no hercjic deeds, save those of loving sacri- 
fice. Typical, representative she was, but in no sense exceptional 
among Connecticut's women in Revolutionary times. 

The sense of moral accountability and of responsibility for tiie 
public welfare, which dominated New England, tended to foster 
in her, as in all New England's children, that "self-reverence, 
self-knowledge, self-control, which alone lead life to sovereign 
power." 

Rcbckah Ulirclcr Poiiicroy Bulkley. 

(MkS. HKNKV IHdRP lUI.KLEV.) 

* The late Miss Helen Sherwood of Green's Farms. 




J B ii n'^:^^^3 



THE HOME OF 1 KEEI.OVE BAI.DWIX STOW, MILFORD. 



FREELOVE BALDWIN STOW 




HE Milford chapter did not need to deliberate lono; in 
the selection of a name. The name of Freelove Bald- 
win Stow, wife of Captain Stephen Stow, appealed to 
them at once. Not only did Freelove Baldwin Stow 
give her four sons, Stephen, Samuel, John, and Jedediah, to the 
cause of liberty, but the following story will show that she was 
called upon for even greater renunciation. 

On a bitter cold winter night in December, 1776, about two 
hundred half-clothed, half-starved, sick and d\ing soldiers were 
landed on the Sound shore at iSIilford. During the entire day the 
inhabitants had watched with anxious eyes a suspicious looking 
craft in the harbor. Under cover of darkness these poor wretches 
were cast on shore from a British ship to which they had been 
transferred from the prison ship Jersey. Near the landing place 
were the homes of Captain Isaac Miles and Captain Stephen 
Stow, who, each at his own fireside, little dreamed of the scenes 
being enacted within sight of their homes. Suddenly there fell 
upon their ears strange, indefinable sounds. Springing for their 
rifles, they opened their doors to find the place fairly swarm- 
ing with nearly frozen, starving, loathsome humanity. Into the 
kitchens of Stephen Stow and Isaac Miles these starved, wild-eyed 
creatures swarmed. For the night they received the best care 
which neighbors could give them, but the morning plainly showed 
that nothing could now undo the wretched work which months of 
destitution had wrought. 

The townhouse was hastily impnndsed as a hospital, but l)eiore 
night the seeds of disease sown in that dreadful prison ship had 
taken root and nearly every man of them was laid low with ship 
fever or small pox. To obtain nurses was almost an impossibility. 
But there was one man who unhesitatingly took uj) the duty 
which lay nearest at hand. It was Stephen Stow, the husband of 



34° THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

our heroine. After making his will, an act which gives evidence 
that he realized the uncertainty of his return, he turned his face 
on all that was dear to him, home, friends and wUe, and taking 
his life in his hands, ministered day and night to those sick and 
dying men. until at last, worn out by constant attendance, he too 
s\iccumbed to tiie dread disease. Forty-six of the sufferers were 
laid to rest in tlie burial ground at Milford, and with them their 
faithful friend and nurse, Stephen Stow, whose brave wife's claim 
to the bodv of her husband after death could not be allowed. 

In 1853, a monument was erected to the memory of these prisoner- 
patriots on which was inscribed by the State of Connecticut the 
following reccjrd of vStephen Stow's sacrifice : 

" In niemoiT of Stephen Stow, who died Feb. S, 1777, 
aged 51. T(j administer to the wants and necessities, 
and soothe the miseries of those sick and d3Mng men 
was a work of e.Ktreme self-denial and danger, as many 
of them were suffering from malignant and contagious 
maladies. In this voluntary service Stephen Stow took 
the disease of which he died. To commemorate his 
self-sacrificing devotion to his country and humanity, 
the Legislature of Connecticut resolved to inscribe his 
name upon the monument." 

Travelers by rail between New Haven and New York, as the 
train nears Milford, often note the tall brownstone shaft which 
marks the resting place of these Revolutionary patriots, the sight 
of which may recall the words of One who for the love of suffer- 
ing humanity made the supreme sacrifice : " Greater love hath no 
man than this : that a man lay down his life for his friend." 

Freelove Baldwin Stow was a woman of gentle birth and could 
trace her lineage to royal ancestors. She was born December 5, 
1728, and was the daughter of Phineas and Rebecca (Baldwin) 
Baldwin. Her father, Phineas Baldwin, was a descendant of John 
Brucn, of Bruen, Staplcford, Cheshire, England, whose biography 
was published in 1799 by authority of the city of Chester, England. 
John Bruen was a descendant of Robert de Bruen of Cheshire 
(1220), was born in 1560 and was married three times. His first 
wife, D(jrothy, was a daughter of Sir Thomas Halford of Halford, 
Cheshire, and of his wife, Jane Booth. His second wife was 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 341 

Anne Fox, whose son (Jbadiali Bruen was one of the patentees of 

the charter of Connecticut. His third wife was Margaret , 

whose daughter, Mary Bruen (b. 1622). came to America witli lier 
half-brother Obadiah, and married John Baldwin of Milford. 

John Baldwin came from Donrigge, Parish of Aston Clinton, 
Bucks County, England, and was one of the first Milford settlers 
of 1640. Freelove Baldwin was a great granddanghter of John 
Baldwin by both parents, her mother being a granddaughter of 
Jolin Baldwin's first wife, and her father a grandson of Marv — , 
Jolm Baldwin's second wife. 

The Stows came from Maidstone, Kent County, England, and 
settled in Roxbury, Mass. Among the first settlers of Massachu- 
setts was John Stow, the Puritan of Roxburv. He was the grand- 
father of Stephen Stow of Milford. Three of John Stow's 
descendants were presidents of Yale College and one is named 
among the founders of Yale. Stephen Stow was also a descend- 
ant of John Hopkins, one of the f(ninders of Hartford, and of the 
Stockings, Moulds, and Bronsons, all of noble name and deed. 

Many articles of furnitvire which were the marriage portion of 
Freelove Baldwin are still in existence, and tradition says that 
Madam Stow on occasions used to provide for her friends a deli- 
cious brew of tea, none of which came from Massachusetts I3ay. 
It is not known where Freelove Baldwin Stow was buried. She 
lived at the time of her death in the same house where her Inis- 
band and sons left her when they went out to battle and death. 
Tradition says that her son, Jedediah Stow, was close upon the 
heels of General Putnam at Horseneck, and that John Stow, 
another son, was at the battle of Saratoga. The present owner* 
of the Stephen Stow house kindly had one of the original rafters 
removed that the charter of the Freelove Baldwin Stow Chapter 
might be framed with wood from the home of Stephen Stow. 

Sarah JV. S/o'u'. 
Mary Mcr-wi/i Tihhals. 

(MKS. J. W. TIUHAI.S.) 

•"Mr. Howard Piatt. 



The authorities used in compiling this sketch were: Baldwin (icncalogy ; 
Tuttle Genealogy ; Mrs. Haxtun, .^'<.•7i• York Mail and Kxprc-ss. 




I 







CHURCH AT SKTAUKET, LONG ISLAND. 



(Over tlie first cluirch Sarah Ludlow's luisbaiid, Rev. Xatlianiel Brewster, was settled 
from 1665 to i6qo.) 



SARAH LUDLOW 

DAUGHTER OF 

ROGER LUDLOW 
B Connecticut jfoun^cr of 1630 

REPRESENTED IN THE REVOLUTION BY 

ISAAC JOHNSON 
H Connecticut 5ol^iev ot 1776*1781 



SARAH LUDLOW CHAPTER 
SEYMOUR 



Gknkalogical Table showing Sarah Ludlow's connection 
WITH Colonial Fai\iilie2, and her Seymour representa- 
tive of the Revolutionary period. 



Roger Li-ni.ow Elder William Brewster Peter Johnson Robert Hawkins 

I , Fairfield Milford • 

Jonathan I j 

_., J ^-.J i i . L^ 

bARAH LUDLOW — Rev. Nathaniel Brewster Ebenezer = Elizabeth Wooster Joseph 

b. 1649 m. 1671 b. 1642] 

Derby 166S ^ .Derb} 

I m. (1) 1671 ' I 

i m. (2) 1675 



John Brewster Elizabeth Johnson=Jere.miah Johnson, Jr. Joseph = Elizabeth G 

b. 1672 b. 1669^ 

I m. 1690 m. 1693I 

_ -J I I I I 

Sarah LroLow Brewster=Benajah Johnson Sarah Ludlow Brewster=Joseph Haw 

m. (2) 1728 b. 1702 m. (i) 1720 b. 1697 

m. 172S im. 1720 

d. 1763 I d. 1725 

Isaac Johnson = Lois Hopkins 
b. i736|Waterbury 

m. 1758'jm. 175S 
d. 1813I d. 1S14 



SARAH LUDLOW 




() state in the Union is richer in historic and genea- 
logical lore than Connecticut. It is stated that more 
than one-half of the members of the National Society 
of the Daughters of the American Revolution have 
come tu Connecticut to trace their genealogy. Of this stock, 
from which so numerous a company have descended, Judge 
Hollister, one of Connecticut's historians, says: "The earl}' 
settlers of Connecticut .... could trace their descent through 
knights and gentlemen of England, back to that wavering hori- 
zon where history loses itself in fable." 

Connecticut's history begins in the year 1636, when Roger 
Ludlow and seven others came from the Bay Colony of Massa- 
chusetts and established a new colony on the Connecticut 
River. During the first year Roger Ludlow acted as governor. 
At the end of the year, a renewal of the commission was not 
solicited, as the remoteness of the new colony from Massachusetts 
made it inconvenient to cooperate. Moreover Ludlow and his 
associates were not intending, when they left Massachusetts, to 
remain under the jurisdiction of the Bay Colony. Therefore these 
planters of the river settlement formed themselves, by a voluntary 
compact, into a distinct commonwealth. 

"With sober thought and prayerful consideration, they drew up 
a constitution, which to-day forms the basis of the constitutions 
of many states of the American Republic." Dr. Styles of Windsor 
says : "This document, drawn up with great care and knowledge, 
seems to bear the marks of a great statesman and of a lawyer-like 
mind, and the intrinsic evidence, the legal skill, etc., seem to prove 
that no other hand than Ludlow's drew up this famous Connec- 
ticut constitution, which forms the keystone of the arch upon 
which rest the constitutions of not only the several states, but of 
the p-eneral Federal Constitution of the United States." 



346 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Tliis remarkable document was adopted by the Connecti- 
cut settlers January 14, 1639. For this work and for his cele- 
brated code of laws, the General Covirt ordered compensation to 
Roger Ludlow in formal resolutions, closing with these words : 
'' For his great pains in establishing . . . and in making Connecti- 
cut forever illustrious." 

From Roger Ludlow, a master-builder of Connecticut's con- 
stitution, one-third of the charter members of the vSeymour chapter 
claim a lineal descent. Hence the name of his daughter, Sarah 
Ludlow, was given to tlie chapter in Sevmour, whose members 
desire thus to hold in remembrance both the name of Ludlow and 
the name of Brewster, Nathaniel Brewster, the husband of Sarah 
Ludlow, being a grandson of Elder William Brewster of the 
Mayflower, from whom also members of the Sevmour chapter are 
descended. 

Roger Ludlow was born 1592, and when twenty years of age, 
matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford, England. He studied for 
the bar in London aind was admitted to the " Inner Temple." He 
came to America in 1630 in the ship Mary and John, and was one 
of the most eminent of the New England colonists. His second 
wife was a sister of Governor John Endicott of Massachusetts. 

Ludlow was a man whose love of adventure fitted him for the 
life of a pioneer, and whose exuberant imagination asked for an 
ample field in which to expand itself. He, therefore, fixed his 
sagacious eyes very early upon the rich plains of Fairfield and 
saw at a glance the opportunity they offered for development. 

In 1639 he obtained a commission from the General Court of 
Connecticut to form a new settlement in Fairfield. In 1640 he 
obtained from the Indians of that section, by "honorable pur- 
chase," a tract of land extending " from the sea, a dav's walk into 
the country." This "day's walk" was the northern boundary of 
the purchase, and later was known as the " North-walk ; " hence 
came the name of the ttnvn of Norwalk. 

While living in Fairfield County, Roger Ludlow was thrice 
deputy-governor of the Connecticut Colony and for several 
years, a colonial magistrate. He was also the first judge cjf the 
Fairfield town and county court, as well as the military com- 
mander. In 1654 he left Fairfield for Virginia, where resided his 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 347 

younger brother, George, who, dying the folh)wing year, willed 
most of his estate to Roger Ludlow's children, an act which fixed 
the future residence of Roger Ludlow and his family in Virginia 
and in England.* 

A few years later Roger Ludlow, with his daughter Sarah, sailed 
for England. Sarah's atfianced husband, Natlianiel Brewster, 
remained in America to complete his course of education at Har- 
vard College. On his graduation he sailed for England, where he 
married Sarah Ludlow and twenty years hiter returned with her 
to the colonies. Meanwhile her father had lived a part of the 
time in Virginia and resumed the care of the Ludlow estates. 

The Ludlow property in Fairfield was bought by Major Nathan 
Gold. The ruins and stone work of the cellar are now all that 
remain of this earlv home of Roger Ludlow in Fairfield. 

Roger Ludlow's mother, Jane Pyle, was a sister of Sir Gabriel 
Pyle, Knight, and her aunt, Elizabeth Pyle, was the wife of Sir 
Francis Popham. Hence Roger Ludlow was an own cousin of 
Chief Justice Popham. Roger Ludlow's father was the uncle of 
Sir Henry Ludlow, who was a member of the Long Parliament of 
1640 and he was a great uncle of Sir Edmund Ludlow, the regi- 
cide, who was also a lieutenant-general and who acquired great 
renown both as an orator and as a soldier. 

The Ludlow genealogy is traced to the twelfth century, to Castle 
Ludlow, located in Shropshire, about twenty miles from Shrews- 
bury, which is now the projjerty of the Crown. It is described as 
a magnificent structure, with huge square towers upon the outer 
walls, a great keep with angular turrets, and a large circular 
Norman chapel. For many years it was the residence ot the 
Lords-President of Wales, and at one time the royal abode. It 
was confiscated by Parliament in 1646. The church which con- 
tains the Ludlow. tomb is situated on the east bank of the river 
Wiley, a short distance from the castle.* 

The Ludlow family in England possessed estates which gave 
them the rank of gentlemen, and their personal endowments, 
equalling their fortunes, gave them just claims as Knights of the 
Shire, to stand as candidates to represent their county in Parlia- 

*The History of Fairfield County; The Genealogy of tlie Pyle Family, by 
Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbell Godfrey Schenk. 



34^ THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

ment — an honor wliicli tlicy seldom failed to attain. Even in 
Parliament the Ludlows were strong advocates for the liberties 
of the people, against the usurpation of the crown. 

Gabriel Ludlow, brother of Roger, Avas the progenitor of the 
Ludlows of the State of New York and of New Jersey, and his son 
Ciabriel was one of the first vestrymen of old Trinity Church in 
New ^'()rk Citv, in 1697. The latter's granddaughter, Cornelia, 
married Abraham Willink, son of William Willink, an eminent 
banker and financier of Amsterdam, Holland. Abraham Willink 
was an early friend of the American Republic, and rendered it 
great service by negotiating the first loan. Their name is perpetu- 
ated in a memorial building called Ludlow-Willink Hall of St. 
Stephen's College, Annandale, New Jersey.* 

The will of George Ludlow, by which the children of Roger 
became possessed of the Virginia estate, is on record in London. 
It was proven at the Prerogative Court in Canterbury, England, 
August I, 1656, and as no executor was named, letters of adminis- 
tration, with the will annexed, were granted to Roger Ludlow, 
Esq., as the father and curator of Jonathan, Joseph, Roger, Anne, 
Mary and Sarah Ludlow, minors, the nephews and nieces of the 
testator. 

Sarah, the youngest child, was born in Fairfield. It is impossi- 
ble to find much concerning her individual record. What has 
been discovered represents her as a person eminentlv distinguished 
for her genius and literary acquirements. She is said to have 
taken a thorough course in law under her father's teaching, and 
seems to have inherited some of her father's legal acumen. 
" Many a knotty point did she solve for the early lawyers, and in 
many trials she was the power behind the scenes, the judge often 
reserving decision until ' Maid Ludlow,' as she was called, 
could be consulted."! 

She married the Rev. Natiianiel Brewster, son of Jonathan, 
who was the son of Elder William Brewster. Nathaniel Brewster 
graduated in 1643 at Harvard, and because of the liberality 
shown at that time in England to dissenters, he returned to 
England with many of his class. He received the degree of 

* "The Old Families of New York," an old book found in the Astor Library, 
f Barber's Historical Collections. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 349 

Bachelor of Divinity from the Dublin Universitv and was settled 
as a minister over the parish of Abbv, in Norfolk County, 
Enghrnd.* It was during his residence in England that his mar- 
riage took place. During the twenty years which elapsed before 
the return of Nathaniel Brewster and his wife to America, three 
sons, John, Timothy and Daniel, were born to them. From 
different records it appears that these sons were sent t(j America 
to be cared for and educated by their grandfather, Jonathan, 
and bv their aunt, Hannah Brewster, who were living at Setauket, 
Long Island. 

The return of the Rev. Nathaniel and his wife Sarali to 
America could hardly be called a voluntary act, arising as it did 
from "the general ejection" of the Protestant clergy in 1662. 
His final " setting down " in America was at Brookhaven, L. 1., 
but previouslv he preached for three years in various places in 
New England, one of his pulpits being the First Church in 
Boston. 

In 1665 he went to Setauket, Long Island, to visit his three 
sons, and soon became the minister of that place, where he 
remained until his death in 1690, at the age of seventy years.f He 
was a graduate in the first class of Harvard University, and is said 
to have been a good scholar and an able divine. The following is 
a copy of a call J which he received about the same time as the one 
which he accepted over the church at Brookhaven. 

July 10, 1665. 

" In towne meeting — If it be your minds yt M'. James Rogers 
shall goe in the behalf of the towne to M' Brewster, tt^ give him a 
call and to know whether he will come to us to be our minister, 
and yt he shall intercead to M'' Pill first to be helpful to us herein, 
manifest it by lifting up your hands. Voted." 

The following are extracts from letters of the present jiastorl 
over the Brookhaven Church : 

" The corporate name of the church for many years was ' The 
First Presbyterian Church of Brookhaven.' The' accompanying 

* Genealogical Department of A/ail and Express, Jime iS and July 30, 1S98. 

f Brine's Ecclesiastical History of Long- Island. 

:j:Miss Calkins' History of New London. 

II Rev. W. H. Littell, who has been pastor since 186S. 



35© THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

picture represents the present cliurch building,* built in 1811. the 
third on the same site. The first church, in which Rev. Nathaniel 
Brewster preached, Avas built in 1671: before that services were 
held in a town building-. The old records of the church and town 
were lost by fire and the church has no record antedating 1797. 
" Sarah Ludlow Brewster and her husband were buried in the 
Presbyterian Burying Ground of Setauket, Long Island, but the 
inscriptions on their stones are too much effaced to be read. 
Doubtless the early Brewsters were buried in our churchyard, 
and one broken stone is near the corner of the church, recording the 
death of a son of the Rev. Nathaniel, but earthworks were cast up 
in the yard when the British occupied the church, and stones were 
broken and old graves cannot be located ; besides previous to the 
Revolution the Brewsters had a burial plot on property adjoining 
this, where their descendants of another name now live." 

The three sons of Nathaniel and Sarah Ludlow Brewster grew 
up to be men of excellent character and were highly useful during 
their lives. A daughter of John Brewster, Sarah Ludlow Brews- 
ter, married Joseph Hawkins of Derby, in 1720. Thev are the 
ancestors of the Hawkins' families of Derby, who built the 
first house on Derby Point. Later they built a store and were 
engaged in importing and selling West India goods which were 
brought directly to the wharf at Derby Point, for at that time 
"Derby smartly rivalled New Haven as a shipping point." 

Sarah Ludlow Hawkins married twice. Her second husband 
was Benajah Johnson of Derby, who, after his marriage to Sarah 
Ludlow Brewster, was a pioneer settler of the town of Seymour. 
He built the first house of the settlement upon Skokarat. 

Two sons of Bcnajaii Johnson and Sarah (Brewster) Johnson 
his wife, served in the Revolutionary war. Isaac, the third, saw 
service with the Connecticut State Troops almost continuously 
from tlie time of his first enlistment, earlv in 1776, to the close of 
the year 1781, the following being his record as found in 
" Connecticut Men of the Revolution " : 

Enlisted 1776, Third Baltali(m, ^Va(isw()rth's Brigade, Colonel 
Sage. Captain Parker's company. 

Enlisted August 5, 1776 ; discharged December 25, 1776. Capt. 
Nathaniel Johnson's com})any. 

Enlisted May 13, 1777; discharged May 13, 1780, Sixth Regi- 
ment. Captain Humphrey's comjjany. 

* Sl'c illustration, page 342. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION'. 35 1 

Paid January i, 1781, to July 31, 1781, Fourth Regiment. 

Paid August i, 1781, to December 31, 17S1, First Regiment. 
Captain Wolcott's company. 

At the time of Tryon's invasion of Danbiuy and Fairfield, Isaac 
Johnson was appointed captain by Derby and other towns, and 
directed to go with his company to Danbury to assist (Tcneral 




BL i;i \1, I'l. \i K OF >AKAi 



(Whose son is the- first Sarah Lmlhiu's Revolutionary representative.) 

David Wooster. He was also appointed by the tcnvn of Derby 
on a committee to procure clothing and provisions, and was 
elected collector of bounty-money for the soldiers.* 

He died in 1813 at the age of seventy-eight and is buried in the 
old Derby Cemetery where his father, wlio died in 1763, and other 
members of his family lie. Their stones have been restored and 
reset. 

*Derbv Records, Vol. I, Minutes of the Town Meetings. 



352 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

His mother, Sarah Ludlow Brewster Johnson, died in 1773 and 
was buried in the so-called Old Indian Cemetery, situated upon 
a terrace overlooking the Naugatuck River. The picture shows 
her last resting place, but the stones are broken and the inscrip- 
tion almost effaced. The following is the inscription upon the 
stone which marks the grave of Isaac Johnson's daughter: 

Anna 

Widow of David French and Daughter of 

Isaac Johnson of Derb)-. 

Died February 8, 1864, 

Aged 85 years. 

Her Paternal Grandmother was the grand- 
daughter of the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, 
who was the grandson of Elder William 
Brewster, who landed from the Mayflower, 
on Plymouth Rock, in 1620. 

Julia A. DiiBois James. 

(MRS. THOJIAS 1.. JAMES.) 



Cbaptcv Mcioincs 

CHOSEN FOR THEIR 

Ipcv^oiial Service or EnCurnnee in 1Revolutionar\2 ZUwcc^ 

ANNA WARNER BAILEY 

AND 

FANNY LEDYARD 

jf Fort Gn.sicolcl 

KATHERINE GAYLORD 

iTt IVroiiiiiig 

ABl HUMASTON 

Anion '^ To/ it's 



ANNA WARNER BAILEY CHAPTER 
GROTON AND STONINGTON 



KATHERINE GAYLORD CHAPTER 
BRISTOL 



FANNY LEDYARD CHAPTER 
MYSTIC 



ABI HUMASTON CHAPTER 
THOMASTON 




iiiiJ 







GROTON MONUMENT. 
(Coinniemorates Patriots' Defense at the I'ort (;risu()l<l Massacre.) 



ANNA WARNER BAILEY 




|F it be true that a city is best protected which has for its 
defense "a wall of men instead of brick," how much 
stronger the defense of that city which possesses also 
brave and self-sacrificing women, such as lived in the 
Revolutionary period of American history. 

The early history of the American nation is a continuous narra- 
tive of endurance, self-reliance and devotion to the cause of liberty 
on the part of both men and women. From the beginning- 
circumstances demanded a hardy and patriotic race, and both the 
founders and defenders of this countrv were equal to the demand. 
Moreover the American women of our entire historv may well 
take rank with the patriot women of any age or country. As a 
type of the self-sacrificing and brave woman of early New 
England, Anna Warner Bailev, chapter heroine of Groton and 
Stonington, has a conspicuous place in Connecticut history. 

Anna, or Nancy Warner as she was called in childhood, was the 
daughter of Philip Warner and of his wife Hannah Mills, and was 
born in Groton, Conn., October ii, 1758. When Anna was about 
ten years of age she and her brother Jabez (two years her senior) 
suffered the loss of their parents. Anna was soon taken into the 
family of her uncle, Edward Mills, a tenant farmer living in that 
part of Groton ncnv known as Pleasant Valley. There were no 
boys at this time in her uncle's family, and Anna was taught to 
assist in the care of the stock, in the dairy, at sheep-shearing and 
to perform such out-door labor as in those days was expected of a 
farmer's daughter. Absorbed in such duties, Anna grew to 
womanhood. When the dreadful massacre at Fort Griswold took 
place in 1781, she was nearly twenty-three years of age. Previous 
to this she was betrothed to Elijah Bailey, a young farmer who 
had enlisted in the service of his country and had been placed on 
garrison duty at the Fort. 



556 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



At the first alarm on the morning of September 6, 1781, Anna's 
uncle, Edward Mills, hastened to join the patriots at Groton 
Heights ; and but a few hours after his hurried departure his wife 
gave birth to a child. 

At sunset of that dreadfid day of bloodshed and carnage, when 
silence followed the clash of cannon and musketry and still the 
patriot husband did not return, Anna having performed the duties 
of the farm and household, left her aunt in the care of a neighbor 
and hastened to the battlefield to look for her uncle. She always 

believed that she was the 
first woman to enter the 
fort in search of loved 
ones. Although davlight 
was fading, the horrors 
of the scene were but too 
clearly revealed. The 
fort was literally 
drenched Avith the blood 
of her townsmen. To 
use Anna's own words, 
" If the earth had opened 
and poured forth blood 
instead of drinking it in, 
it could not have been 
more plentiful." After 
searching long among 
tlie dead and wounded, 
manv of whom were 
mangled beyond recog- 
nition, she found her 
uncle, who had been shot 
and had fainted from loss 
of blood. Having been 
left for dead, he escaped the torture of the ride down the hill in the 
wagon packed with dying patriots. (After the fort had surren- 
dered, tiie British soldiers loaded a large wagon with the wouiuled 
and dying patriots and with Avanton cruelty sent it rajndly down 
the steep hill. In its swift descent it struck with such force 




.'\NN.\ \V.\KXER HAILEY. 



DAUGHTERS OK THE a:MERICAX REVOLUTTOX. 357 

against a tree that several of tlie sufferers were thrown cjiit and 
instantly killed.) 

Seizing an empty cartridge bcjx, iVnna ruslied to the well for 
water and jNIr. ]\lills was soon restored to consciousness. With 
the assistance of a boy engaged in a like mission as herself, she 
succeeded in getting her fatallv wounded uncle to the nearest 
house. When he was told of tlie birth of his child, he exclaimed: 
" Oh, if I could see Hannah and the babv before I go, I should die 
content." Thereupon Anna hurried home, saddled and bridled a 
horse and wrapping the wee little one in a blanket, hastened back 
to her uncle with his child that it might receive a dying father's 
blessing. This accomplished, she restored the child in safety to its 
mother and returned on foot over the lonelv road to her uncle. 
But in the meantime death had ended his sufferings and the soul 
of a patriot had passed to its reward. 

During these incidents Anna had obtained no trace of her lover, 
who, even as she searched for him in tlie fort among the dead and 
wounded, was among the prisoners on the way to New York, where 
for many months he endured the horrors of captivity in the 
British prison ships. 

It was nearlv midnight when Dr. Joshua Downer and his son 
Avery from Preston, Conn., reached the scene of the massacre, 
and with their assistance Anna made bandages, brought food and 
water, did evervthing that couhl be done to relieve the suflerings 
of the wounded. At dawn Anna turned her weary steps toward 
her saddened home, allowing herself no rest however until the 
morning duties of farm and household were performed. 

So deep were the impressions made by the shocking scenes of 
cruelty which Anna Warner witnessed during the night of the 
massacre, that at her uncle's funeral she made a solemn vow "to 
hate England and the English forever" — a vow whicli she faith- 
fully kept all through her life. 

Hannah Mills, widowed like so many of her neighbors, and 
with five children, the eldest less than nine vears of age, depend- 
ent upon her. had no capital save the farm animals and the 
unharvested crops. This was Anna Warner's opportunity to 
prove her love and gratitude to the aunt who had been to her as a 
mother, and to show that if she was intense in her hatred she was 



358 THE PATROxX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

cqiiallv strong and faitliful in her affections. She immediately 
assumed the charge of her aunt's business affairs and in due time 
the crops were safely gathered, the animals provided for and all 
the arduous work of the farm wisely and faithfully performed. 
Not until Mrs. Mills was able to provide for herself would Anna 
consent to be married, and as long as her cousins, the "Mills 
children," lived she regarded them as under her special care. 

In due time Anna Warner became the wife of Elijah Bailey, 
lie was a boy of seventeen when New London was burned and 
the awful massacre at Groton took place. Just previous to the 
attack young Bailey and a comrade were ordered by Colonel 
Ledvard to man a gun at a redoubt a little southeast of the fort. 
Mrs. Bailey, when referring to this incident in after years, 
remarked : " He was courting me then, boy though he was." 

The married life of Elijah and Anna Warner Baile}^ was 
particularly happy. In the eyes of his wife Elijah Bailey seemed 
to wear a martyr's halo on account of his sufferings on the prison 
ship in New York harbor. She regarded him witli great affection, 
placed the utmost confidence in his judgment, and through their 
long life together showed him a rare constancy and loyalty. 

Mrs. Bailey's housekeeping was conducted on rules as unalter- 
able as the laws of the Medes and Persians. Being a strict 
Sabbatarian, no work that could possibly be avoided was done in 
her house on Sunday, no cooking even, and all meals were served 
cold. She was born of religious parentage ; her mother, 
Hannah Warner, was admitted to the Groton church under Rev. 
Daniel Kirtland's administration on July 2, 1758, and her father, 
Philip Warner, was admitted on November 26 of the same year. 
Anna Warner Bailey herself accepted, on July 15, 1806, the New 
London Profession of Covenant at the house of William Avery in 
Cxroton. Having become a member of the Groton church, she 
refused to change her place of worship when the new edifice was 
built in the village (jf Groton ; thus in summer's heat and winter's 
cold she repaired to the old " Black Meeting House " as it was 
called and worshipped there "alone with God." It Avas also her 
custom every year for fiftv-six years to read the Bible through, 
from the story of the Creation in Genesis to the Benediction in 
Revelations, and in extreme old age she was able to accomplish 
this without the aid of glasses. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 359 

In 1810, when the relations between Great Britain and America 
again became unfriendly, Mrs. Bailey was eager for a declaration 
of Avar, evidently hoping that the cruel deaths of her relatives and 
friends at the Fort Griswold massacre would be avenged. When 
war was finally declared her joy was very evident. She watched 
the progress of events with absorbing interest and hailed every 




MONUMENT HOUSE NEAR THE FORT GKlsWuLD MONUMENT, GROTON. 

(A storehouse for historical relics. In the custodianship of the 
Anna Warner Bailey Chapter.) 



American victory with keenest delight, on such occasions illumi- 
nating her house from cellar to attic. 

At this time the famous "flannel petticoat" episode occurred 
that brought "Mother Bailey" (as she was called in her later 
life) into great notoriety. In June, 1813, Commodore Decatur 
was blockaded in New London harbor by the English fleet of 
Commodore Hardv, which, it was feared, would offer battle. 



360 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Many of the inhabitants of New London, remembering the terri- 
ble tragedy of 1781, thirty-two years before, feared the worst. 
Women on both sides of the river fled into the country, taking 
tlieir children and valuables ^^'ith them. Mother Bailey sent her 
effects to a place of safet}' but with characteristic courage decided 
to remain at liome herself and face the danger. 

Major Simeon Smith, afterwards high sheriff of the cc)untv, was 
placed in command of Fort Griswold. Anticipating an attack. 
Major Smith commissioned Albert Latham, Esq., to have all 
available arms brought into the fort with all the wadding that 
could be obtained. But the supply of flannel was not sufticient 
and hearing that Mother Bailey was at her home. Major Smith 
sent her word of his dilemma. She alone could not meet the 
demand but promptly said to Mr. Latham, " Let us search the 
village ; you go in one direction and I will go in another and see 
what Ave can find." But their combined efforts did not secure the 
necessary amount and Latham said, " Whv ! this isn't half 
enougii." After a moment's hesitation Mother Bailey, seizing the 
scissors which every matron of that day carried at her side, 
quickly clipped the strings of her flannel skirt, and stripping the 
garment from her person handed it to the messenger, saying, " It 
is a good heavy one, but I don't care for that." The garment was 
exhibited at the fort and enthusiasically cheered by the soldiers of 
the garrison to whom the story of its procurement had been told. 
And so this incident lives in history as exemplifying quickness of 
thought and i)romptness of action on the part of a brave and 
patriotic woman. Miss Calkins, the historian of New London, 
says: "The Martial Petticoat and its ])artisan donor have ever 
since been renowned in our local annals." 

^Mother Bailey was lionored with visits from the distinguished 
soldiers and statesmen of the day. During the visit of Lafayette to 
this country in 182^, he called upon her with all his suite. Other 
distinguished persons who were entertained at her home in 
Groton were Presidents Monroe, Jackson and \'an l^uren. Col. 
Richard M. Johnson and General Cass. This attention gave 
Mother Bailey evident pleasure and when parting with Colonel 
Johnson it is related that she took his hand which had been injured 
in the encounter with Tecumseli and with much feeling remarked 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 36 1 

that she could say with Simeon of old, " Lord, now letlest thou 
thy servant depart in peace." Colonel Johnson, though not as 
thoroughly versed in scripture as Mother Bailey, made an appro- 
priate response. 

After President Jackson's visit to Mother Bailey, she sent him a 
pair of heavy mittens knitted by herself from wool which she had 
carded and spun. This was a touching souvenir for President 
Jackson to receive from a woman over three score vears and ten, 
and in kindly appreciation he sent her in return a lock of his 
hair. It is said that this relic is still preserved in a box made of 
wood from the battleship " Old Ironsides," the box having been 
presented to Mother Bailey by Governor Dodge of Wisconsin. 
The box bears the following inscription : 

" Old Ironsides " 
A.D. 
1842. 

Mrs. Bailey's characteristic loyalty is shown in the following 
story : 

One morning after the war of 1S12 with Great Britain, two men. 
Englishmen in disguise, came to her home asking for l)reakfast. 
One of the men carried a musical instrument and while waiting 
for breakfast they entertained her with her favorite airs, "Jeffer- 
son and Libertv," "Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle." 
Finally they struck up " God Save the King," a performance so 
little in harmony with her ideas of patriotism, that her self- 
invited guests were compelled to get their breakfast elsewhere that 
morning. This was simj)ly a contrived plot on the part of the 
Englishmen to test her patriotism, which they found was of ster- 
ling ciuality. 

The Groton Monument, erected in memory of the slain at the 
Fort Griswold massacre, was the shrine of her special devotion. 
No Mussulman ever turned toward the holy city with deeper 
devotion than did faithful Mother Bailey to the Groton Monument. 
It was her custom to celebrate the sixth of September of each year 
by visiting the monument in company with Colonel Benhani, 
Mr. Jonathan Brooks, Dr. Joshua Downer aiul other men who 
were' survivors of the events there commemorated. 



362 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Mrs. Bailey was noted for her qualities as nurse, and in the dis- 
charge of her self-imposed duties, by the bedside, displayed 
remarkable aptness. An instance of her active benevolence is 
thus related. She was met, on the street, one morning in the 
winter of 1837, bearing a large bundle of loaves of bread. Being 
asked, by a neighbor, what had called her out on such a cold 
morning, she answered (pointing to her package) that she was 
distributinir tracts. She was then seventy-nine years old. 




IIU.NU-; 01-' ANNA WARNER IJAlLliV, URLITUN. 



Earlv in tlie year of 184S, the health of Elijah Bailey began to 
fail, and from that time every thought of Mrs. Bailey centered in 
the husband of her youth and she took but little interest in public 
afifairs. When his death occurred on August 24, 1848, all the 
courage and cheer went out of her heart and, although she survived 
him more than three years, in physical and mental vigor she 
steadily declined. 

Elijah Bailey, it is said, was the last survivor of the Fort 
(iriswfjld massacre. He was the first postmaster of Groton and 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. ;^6^ 

held the office until his death. The office was then tendered to 
Mrs. Bailey in appreciation of her ability and patriotism and held 
by her during the remaining three years of her life. Her last 
years were quiet and uneventful, and were spent in her home on 
the corner of Thames and Broad Streets in Groton, which has 
changed but little in external appearance since her occupancy. 

On January lo, 185 1, her release came, but in a most shocking 
manner. As she was sitting quietly by the fire one day, her 
attendant had occasion to go to a neighbor's on an errand. Dur- 
ing her absence Mother Bailey fell forward on the open fire and 
received severe burns on her face, arms and breast. Her suffer- 
ings drew from her the cry, " It is terrible," which were the last 
words she uttered. In a short time death came to her relief and 
thus passed from earth, at the great age of ninety-two years, this 
true and faithful Daughter of the American Revolution. 

She was buried in the Starr Cemetery, Pleasant Valley, Groton, 
besides her husband who was her all-in-all. White marble stones 
mark their resting places, which are tenderly cared for by the 
Anna Ward Bailey Chapter of Groton and Stonington. 



The inscription on Elijah Bailey's tombstone is as follows 



In 

Memory of 

Capt. 

Elijah Bailey 

Post Master in this Town 

for about fort_v years : 

who died 

Aug. 29th, 1848 

in the 8gth year 

of his age. 



This spot contains the ashes of the just, 
Who sought no honor, and betrayed no trust, 
This truth he proved in every line he trod, 
" An honest man is the noblest work of God." 



364 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

The inscription on Anna Warner Bailey's tombstone is as 
follows : 

In 

Memory of 

Anna Bailey 

Relict of 

Cai't. Elijah Bailey 

who died 

Jan. 10th, 1851, 

Aged 92 years & 3 mos. 

Mrs. Bailey having passed t'nrough some 
tiying scenes of the Rcvolutionar}^ war ; 
the patriotism of those times became a 
prominent trait of her character, which so 
conspicuousl}- manifested itself during the 
second war with Great Britain, as to give 
her a wide celebrity. Honored with the 
visits and respectful attentions of some of 
the Presidents of the Republic, and of many 
distinguished citizens, she was no less 
endearetl to the more humble, by her 
unostentatious private charities. 

Harriet Tr////it>i/I/ Palmer. 

(.MRS. IR,\ HAKT PALMER.) 

Mary EJdxe Beiijaiiiiii. 



FANNY LEDYARD 



mW 



HE patriotic woman for whom tlie Mystic chapter is 
named w^as the daughter and youngest child of Capt. 
Jolin Ledyard and of his wife Abigail, who was a 
daughter of Robert Hempstead of Southold, Long 
Island. 

Fanny Ledyard was also a member of the Youngs family — none 
more important in Southold. Rev. John Youngs, her great- 
grandfather, was the leader of the company of sturdy colonists 
who made the settlement in the extreme eastern part of I^ong 
Island and named it for the English Southold. 

Concerning the early life of her grandfather, John Ledyard, 
there is little reliable information. Sparks says that " he was a 
natiye of Bristol, England, and had been bred a Merchant in 
London." While still a young man he left his English home to 
seek his fortune in distant lands. He came to Southold, L. I., in 
17 17, and was first a teacher, tlien a trader, and later a successful 
merchant. He was well educated, prosperous in business and 
engaging in manner and person. After a few years he married 
Deborah Youngs, a lady of estimable qualities and of good fortune, 
the daughter of Judge Benjamin Youngs, a leading citizen of 
Southold. Shortly after their marriage John Ledyard and his 
wife settled in Groton, Conn. His ability and attainments seem 
to haye been quickly recognized in Groton, as he mingled freely 
in public affairs and was made a justice of the peace, an office 
which he held for many years. He transacted much important 
business for Groton, for the neighboring towns and for the 
colony. He also became a prominent member of the General 
Assembly and was the leading spirit of several committees 
empowered by the Colony to promote important and difficult 
enterprises. 

After about twenty years' residence in Groton, Mrs. b)eborah 



366 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Youngs Ledvard died, leaving a family of ten children. John 
Ledyard married for his second wife Mary, the widow of John 
Ellery, a lady of high social position and large fortune. Shortly 
after this marriage John Ledyard established his home in Hart- 
ford, where his large house became a centre of gracious hospitality 
as well as a home for his children and grandchildren. Five 
children born in Hartford were the offspring of the second 
marriage. 

Until the close of his long life John Ledyard continued to take 
an active interest in the welfare of church and state and in the 
cause of education. He died honored and beloved and is remem- 
bered for his eminent public services and for the integrity of his 
character. The ancient freestone tomb erected to his memory still 
stands in the old Centre Burying Ground, Hartford. 

John Ledyard, the father of Fanny Ledyard, was the eldest 
child of John Ledyard and Deborah Youngs. From his earliest 
years he followed the sea and became a ship master of much con- 
sideration. He was captain of a vessel engaged in the West India 
trade — a dangerous occupation at that time, when the entire 
Atlantic coast was infested by privateers and pirates. On one of 
his voyages, he died suddenly in the prime of life, leaving a widow 
and four children, John, Thomas, George, and Fanny who was 
born in i 754. 

The mother of Fanny Ledyard, Abigail Hempstead, was the 
daughter of Robert Hempstead of Southold, L. L, and was a 
beautiful and accomplished Avoman, who at the age of eighteen 
became the wife of Capt. John Ledyard. Of the six children 
born to them four were living at the time of their father's death. 
Bereaved and saddened by the death of her husband and two 
children, Abigail Ledyard devoted lierself to the care of her 
fatherless children. After about nine vears of widowhood, 
Mrs. Ledyard married Dr. Micah Moore of Southold, a physician 
greatly beloved and a valued member of society and a pillar of 
the church. By him she had three children, Abigail, who was 
born in 1765 ; Julia, born in 1767 ; and Phoebe, born in 1769. 
Dr. Moore died in 1775, leaving his widow with the care oi a 
second family, which she was destined to rear amid the horrors of 
war, whose desolation and distress were so soon to overwhelm the 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAX REVOLUTION. 367 

American Colonies. In 1775, tlie Britisli took possession of Long 
Island. In the immediate neighborhood of Mrs. Moore were 
quartered companies of English and Hessian soldiers. The 
Hessians were rough in appearance, in language and manner, and 
struck terror to the stoutest hearts. Surrounded by these uncouth 
enemies of our institutions and in the midst of despicable Tories, 
great inconveniences and even injuries were often endured. 
But through it all, this wise and prudent mother ordered her 
house and conducted her affairs with self-possession, piety and 
fortitude. 

One evening about an hour after sunset, an officer with laced 
coat and polished broadsword, attended by a file of men, uncere- 
moniously entered her house. She had no fire in her hearth at 
the time and her frightened children were clinging to her for 
protection. It was a gloomy moment for the lonely woman, but 
she met it with a heart undaunted. The officer fiourished his 
sword and said : " Madam ! I am informed that you harbor desert- 
ers. If it is true, by the eternal God, I will lay your house in 
ruins before to-morrow morning ! " Mrs. Moore, with perfect 
calmness, looked him full in the face and said ; " Sir, your lan- 
guage bespeaks . . . not the Englishman, who, I have been taught, 
is courteous to women. Although unprotected and with my 
frightened little ones about me, I feel perfectly safe under the 
protection of that Providence which has thus far sustained me 
through most sorrowful scenes, in which I should have sunk 
but for that support of grace. I have no fear of those who would 
rob us of our just and holy rights. Your attempt to subdue us 
will prove fruitless, and Truth and Washington will triumph ; we, 
his loyal daughters are destined to serenade him with the glorious 
song of liberty achieved. Who is your informer as to runaways ? '" 
In reply the English officer pointed to his companion, a resident 
of Southold, Elnathan Burts by name, who had joined the British 
in their war for the subjugation of his native land. In response, 
Mrs. Ledyard said : " That guilty looking individual who stands 
trembling in yonder corner is a liar, and if you, sir, doubt tlie fact 
I will prove him such and more." The informer dropped his head 
and no further search for deserters was made in the home of 
Madam Moore. Soon all departed, the officer observing to his 



368 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

"•uard, " The influence of these American women, I perceive, is 
measureless."* 

From such a heroic fireside Fanny Ledyard came to Groton to 
visit lier uncle. Col. William Ledyard, the commander of F'ort 
Grisvvold previous to its attack by the British. She was an eye 
witness of the horrors of that ghastly day in Groton history, the 
sixth of September, 1781, and became a ministering angel of the 
fort, her companion in this work of mercy to the dying heroes of 
Fort Griswold being her own cousin, Mary Ledyard,f who was also 
a visitor in New Londtjn at the time of the massacre. The follow- 
ing quotation is from a letter of a descendant of Fanny Ledyard, 
who, referring to the event, writes : " She went with her cousin to 
the place where the dying and wounded lay. She often described 
the scene and always said that she stepped over her shoe tops in 
blood." 

The scene in this massacre in which Fanny Ledyard took a part 
is thus recorded in the words of one of the victims : 

" Of the massacre at Fort Griswold, which occurred September 6, 
1781, Sergeant Stephen Hempstead (one of the thirty-five wounded 
men who were carried to the house of Ebenezer Avery) says : 
' Nothing but groans and una\ailing sighs were heard, and two of 
our number did not live to see the light of morning, which 
brought with it some "ministering angels" to our relief. The 
first one was in the person of Miss Fanny Ledyard of Southold, 
Long Island, then on a visit to her uncle. Col. William Ledyard, 
our murdered commander. She held to my lips a cup of warm 
chocolate, and soon after returned with wine and other refresh- 
ments, which revived us a little. The cruelty of the enemy cannot 
be conceived ; avc were (at least an hour after the battle) within a 
few steps of a pump well supplied with water and, although we 
were suffering with thirst, they would not permit us to take one 
drop of it, nor give us any themselves. Some of our number were 
repulsed with the bayonet, and not one drop did I taste after tlie 
action began, although begging for it, until relieved by Miss 
Ledvard.' " 

Tluis the name of Ledvard, identified as it is through the 
martyred Colonel Ledyard and the courageous Ledyard girls with 

"Tliis storj' is from an old newspaper. 

f Mar)' Ledyard afterwards became the wife of Gen. Jolin Forman. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AINIERICAN REVOLUTION. 369 

the ghastly massacre at Fort Griswold, well befits a chapter of 
the Daughters of the American Revohition wliich draws its mem- 
bership largely from the historic vicinitv of Fort (iriswold. 

vShortly after the close of the war, Fanny Ledyard became the 
wife of Mr. Richard Peters of Southold, I>. I., where she lived 
until her death in 1816. The house* which was her home during 
all her married life, was built more than two hundred years ago 
by Col. John Youngs, son of Rev. John Youngs, the first minister 
at Southold, L. I. 

The later years of Fanny Ledyard's life seem to have been quiet 
and uneventful, but, after the stormy scenes in whicli her youth 
was passed, and the tragic and terrible experience at Fort Gris- 
wold, she was, no doubt, more than content with the peace and 
comfort of a quiet, domestic life. She and her honored mother 
must have greatly rejoiced to see the country for which as a 
family thev had sacrificed so much, a free, prosperous nation. 
Her mother, Abigail Led3'ard Moore, died in 1805, at the age of 
seventy-six. She was noted for her charity and many acts of 
kindness, and abounded in the graces of Christian womanhood. 

John Ledyard, the eldest brother of Fanny, developed in early 
vears a strong taste for travel and adventure. He was a com- 
panion of Captain Cooic on the disastrous voyage in polar seas in 
which Captain Cook lost his life. The story of John Ledyard's 
visits to foreign lands and of his experiences with strange and 
savage people, forms an interesting narrative, and is given in 
Sparks' American Biographies. 

To Phebe, the third daughter of Abigail Ledyard Moore by her 
second marriage, the churches of Long Island and Connecticut 
owe a debt of gratitude. Phebe Moore was married three times, 
first to Mr. Joseph Wickham of Mattituck, L. I., second to Mr. 
Edward Smith of Stonington, Conn., and third to Deacon Ebenezer 
Denison of Mystic, Conn. Two years after her first marriage, at 
the age of twenty-four, she organized in her own house the first 
Sunday School of Long Island and the sccoini of America. 

Mr. Wickham died in 1806. After her second marriage in 1S09, 
she removed to the home of her second husband in Stonington, 

•"The house is now owned and occupied by Mrs. Rebecca (Peters) Downs. 
24 



37© TH1-: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

and there started her second Sunday School, wliich was the first 
in Eastern Connecticut. Two years after Mr. Smith's death she 
returned again to Southold, L. I., and in 1813, started her third 
Sunday School. In 1816, her marriage to Deacon Ebenezer 
Denison took place, and she removed to Mystic, where her fourth 
school Avas begun in 181 7. 

Mrs. Denison died in 1840 at the age of seventy-one years. She 
was a woman of great enthusiasm in religious work, and of 
unusual gifts of mind and speech. By her gracious gifts and 
devoted spirit she enriched the life of every community in which 
she lived.* 

The following is a copy of the inscription on the tombstone 
erected early in the century at the graves of Fann}- Ledyard Peters 
and her husband in the ancient burying ground of Southold : 

In memory 
In memory r 

° Frances 

Richard Peters ^^y^^^ ^^ Richard Peters 

<^^"»- -5- 1810 fan. 15, 1816, 

'^''- 57- Ae. 62. 

There the wicked cease from troubling 
And there the wear}- be at rest. 

In June, 1895, the Mystic chapter placed a large granite tablet 
over her grave, bearing this inscription : 

The "Fanny Ledyard" Chapter, D. A. R., 

of Mystic, Conn., 

place this tablet upon the grave of 

Fanny Ledyard, niece of Col. William Lfdyard, 

in memory of her noble work among the wounded 

and d3'ing, after the massacre at 

Fort Griswold, Sept. 6, 1781. 

At the unveiling of the tablet, two poems, written by successive 
historians of the chapter, were read from which the following 
selections are taken : 

* Wheeler's History of the First Congregational Church, Stonington. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 37 1 

We drop a tear for the patriot brave — 
As we raise a shout for a nation saved — 
And mark the place of a heroine's grave 

With our country's flag above it. 
While words, deep graven in granite grey, 
Now tell to the stranger who wanders this way 
That she merits our notice to-day, 

Who long has slept below it. 

Her hands, though at last calmly folded and thin, 
Were wringing with anguish 'mid battle's fierce din. 
On the day that her hero and kinsman fell slain 

By the sword which home had defended. 
"O, morn's tardy beams ! Look kindly within, 
To cheer and to brighten the wear.y eye, dim" — 
For alas that it must be ! Yonder brave men 

Were moaning and dreaming of kindred. 

Her hand waver'd not ; her young step ne'er was lighter 
Than when it encounter'd their life-blood ; and tighter 
She grasped that first cup of cold water 

And held it to lips growing grim. 
In the eye that met hers — glowing brighter with fever — 
A new hope was born of this sympath)-, sweeter 
Than e'en life itself ; it said to the helper, 

"We'll live, God willing, and 7oin."* 



When War's tempestuous wave 

Spread sorrow o'er our land, 
No mortal hand could save 

That brave, determined band. 
The battle well they fought. 

The work of courage done. 
Thy feet then hurrying came 

Ere life's last breath was gone. 

By thy hand the cheering draught 

To fevered lips was pressed ; 
In many a patriot's heart 

The loving deed was blessed. 
How many gazed on thee 

Till life's last look was ^iven, 
Perchance thy tender soothing 

Inspired their hopes of heaven. f 

*Mrs. Hortense (Gallup) Fish. f Miss Ann Augusta Murphy. 



372 THE I'ATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

In the cemetery at Groton other members of the Ledyard 
family lie buried. The Ledyard lot is conspicuous for its location, 
its picturesque effects and for its Revolutionary records. The 
simple dates on several stones tell the sad story of the grief and 
losses which came to the Ledyard family, chiefly as the sequel of 
the part taken by the family in the cause of American liberty, all 
of whom except one son died during the war. 

The original tombstone of Col. William Ledyard was a slab of 
blue slate, whi(;h in 1854 was found to be so nearly destroyed by 
relic hunters that Connecticut appropriated fifteen hundred dol- 
lars for a suitable memorial. The present monument was erected 
in accordance with that act. It consists of a base and shaft, 
enclosed by an iron railing, with posts cast in the form of cannon. 

Across the cap of the base the word " Ledyard " ajDpears in 
raised letters, and on the die beneath, the following inscription : 

Sons of Connecticut 

Behold this monument and learn to emulate 

the v'irtue, valor and patriotism 

of your ancestors. 

On the south face of the die is inscribed : 

Erected in 1S54 
By the State of Connecticut in remembrance of the 
painful events that took place in the neighborhood 

during the war of the Revolution. 
It commemorates the burning of New London, the 
storming of Groton Fort, the Massacre of the 
garrison, and the slaughter of Ledyard, the brave 
commander of these posts, who was slain by the 
conc[ueror witli his own sword. 



He fell in the service of his country 
Fearless of death and prepared to die. 

On the north side is the following inscrii)tion, which is a copy 
of the inscription on the original headstcnie, now sadly mutilated 
by relic hunters : 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REXOH/TIOX. 373 

Sacred 

to the memory 

of 

William Lldyard, Esq. 

Colonel Commandant of the Garrisoned Post of 

New London and (iroton, who, after a gallant 

defense, was with a part of the brave garrison, 

inhuman!}' massacred b)- British troops in 

FORT GRISWOLD 

September Otli, 17S1. Aetatis suae 43. 

By a judicious and faitliful discliarge of tlie 

various duties of liis Station, lie rendered most 

essential service to his Country' : and stood 

confessed the Unshaken Patriot and intrepid 

Hero : He lived the Pattern of Magnanimity ; 

Courtesy and Humanity : He died the Victim of 

Ungenerous Rage and Cruelty. 

The epitaph on the headstone of Ann Ledyard, wife of Col. 
William Ledyard, reads : 

Here 

lieth reunited 

to Parent Earth in 

the 46th Year of her Life 

Ann, for a few years the 

disconsolate Relict of 

Col. William Ledyard, 

Who in a Fort adjoining this Ground, tell gallantly 

defending these Towns and Harbor. At her fond 

request her youngest son Charles, aged 8 years, 

lies interred in her arms. 

Those who know how to 

estimate female accomplishments in the person of 

a tender Mother will judge of the Melancholy 

reverence with which this stone is erected to her 

Memory by her only surviving child Peter Y. 

Ledyard. 

The following is the inscription on the stone erected to the 
memory of a daughter of Colonel Ledyard and his wife, Ann 
Ledyard : 



374 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

In Memory of 

Miss Sarah Ledyard 

the amiable daughter of 

Colonel William and Anne 

Ledyard : who departed this 

Life, July 21st, 1781, in 

the 17th Year of her Age. 

Each tedious Task, Life's toilsome pains are o'er 
Her Sorrows cease. Care now she knows no more. 
The Conflict's past, She took the pleasing Road, 
From us ascended to that bright abode. 
Where Faith on Angel's wings, Mounts us on high 
To see her there immortal in the sky. 

The epitaph on the stone erected to the memory of Fanny 
Ledyard's father is as follows : 

In Memory of 

Capt. John Ledyard, Junr. 

Who departed this Life 

March 17, 1762 

Aged 32 years. 

Once did I stand amid Life's bus}' throng, 
Healthy and active, vigorous and strong; 
Oft' did I traverse Ocean's brin}' waves. 
And safe escape a thousand gaping graves, 
Yet dire disease has stopped my vital breath 
And here I lie, the prisoner of Death. 
Reader expect not lengthened days to see. 
Or if thou dost, think, think, ah think of me. 

Harriet A. Stanton. 

(MRS. HENKV C. STANTON.) 



If^atbcrinc (Ba\nor^, 1l3eroine= 



FIRST PRIZE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

NATIONAL SOCIETY 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

DEDICATED TO KATHERINE GAYLORD CHAPTER 

BRISTOL CONNECTICUT 

WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY 

FLORENCE E. D. MUZZY 




EAUTIFUL Wyoming — fair Wyoming- [ Xot iron- 
hound, like these rocky Ne\y England shores, but 
smooth and fertile— easy to till, rich in haryest ! 
Come, let us go ! 

How often, may we belieye, did Katherine Gay lord listen to 
these and like persuasions before she could bring herself to say : 
" Whither thou goest, I will go ! " and to leaye the loyed, rock- 
bound New England for the loyely but fearsome home in the 
wilderness. It could not haye been an easy thing to do, for "only 
he is strong whose strength is tried," and the time liad not yet 
come to proye her mettle. 

The tale of much contention for this most desirable abiding- 
place is oft-told. Oyer its beautiful woods and streams hoyered 
an atmosphere of strife and hate. The aborigines fought for it 
among themselves, and when the white man came, fouglit lor it 
with him. 

Later, untrustworthy Indian sales, and ignorant, invalid grants 
by Royalty added to the confusion of property rights. Finally 
the country came to be claimed at one and the same tinu-, by tlie 
Six Nations, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. 

* Reprinted from the American ^Monthly Magazine, and from an iihistrated 
pamphlet, publislied t)y the Press Publishino- Co., Bristol, Conn. 



376 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

In 176S Connecticut formed here a town, calling it by the sug- 
gestive name of Westmoreland. 

This was divided into townships five miles square, each to be 
given to " fortv " settlers Avho should agree to remain there, 
improve and protect the property. The first forty arrived in 
1769 at AVvoming (called by the red man " Waugh-wau-wame," 
shortened by the white into " Wau-wame," and anglicised later 
into Wvoming). 

In I 770 the fortv began the famous " Forty Fort " at Kingston 
township, Westmoreland, but were interrupted by the Pennamite 
war. Five times were the Yankees expelled by the Pennsylva- 
nians, and five times came back with true Yankee grit to "man 
their rights." 

The completion of Forty Fort followed the cessation of 
hostilities. This was built of upright timbers, closely set. A row 
of cabins, many of them containing several rooms, was ranged 
against the timbers within ; while again within this circle of 
homes was an open space or parade large enougii for the drilling 
of an entire company. In one of these cabins Katlierine Gaylord 
had afterward a home. 

The fort held one store, and a mill consisting of a samp mortar 
made of a burned log, with a pestle worked by a spring-pole. 
Before 1773 Westmoreland had called a minister, and a doctor 
had migrated thither. A tax was laid to support free schools, a 
land office was established, and military organization not neg- 
lected. The soil was prolific, sheep and cattle plentiful, food and 
clothing abundant. Peace seemed at last to brood over the beau- 
tiful valley, while back in New England the war-cloud hung low. 
Xo wonder one "Forty" followed another so rapidly. 

In April-Mav, 1775, Katherine (iaylord, in her Connecticut 
home, saw her husband, at tiie call for troops after Lexington 
Alarm, marcli to the front — Boston and \icinitv. Detachments of 
the brigade to which Aaron Gaylord belonged took part in the 
battle of Bunker Hill. It is probable that he was among them, and 
he was afterwards appointed to a lieutenancy, this entry being 
found in Connecticut Records, May, 1777: "Aaron Gaylord 
established by the Assembly to be lieutenant of Third Company. 
Twenty-fourth Regiment." At the exi)iration of his term in 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



;77 



December, 1775, he returned to his liome in New Cambridge, 
now Bristol, Connecticut. 

Early in 1776, hearing no doubt wonderful tales of fertile 
Wyoming, he moved to the " Far West," with his wife, Katherine 
Cole, and tlieir three children, Lemuel, Phebe and Lorena — the 
eldest, Lemuel, being about eleven years old at that time. 

It is supposed, though not recorded, that they joined one of the 
'• Forties" continually going out. The journey, occupying about 
three weeks (time enough, in these rapid-transit days, to cross the 
continent itself three times, or travel half way round the world), 
was made on horseback, with all their worldly goods. 

Doubtless she found it iiard enough, even with the strong arm 
of her husband to hew her path, but looking back upon it, in her 
terrible journey home three years later, Katherine Gaylord must 
have felt that, measured by suffering, the way out was ease and 
comfort, in comparison. 



jfy'.'W 










378 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Tlicv settled in Forty Fort, and lived the usual frontier life of 
more or less poverty and deprivation. Katherine related in after 
years much of that life to her children and grandchildren, but 
manv of her tales are faded and lost in the mists of the past. 
Viewing, however, the self-sacrificing life of woman as a whole, in 
those hard days, we may come better to understand her own ; for 
surely she was never one to sit idly bv, while others toiled. 

From the remembered tales of her own lips, then, and from the 
recollections of others, we can see her, in addition to the care of 
her own home and family, toiling in fort or field while the men 
were awav upon public service ; planting, garnering grain, husk- 
ing corn, making hay ; riding miles to mill, with laden steed, 
waiting for the wheat to be ground and bringing it home at night 
through long stretches of darkening forest ; and later even mak- 
ing the saltpetre used in the manufacture of powder for public 
defence. 

When drv-goods were gone and money failed she fashioned 
garments from lier own clothing, that her children might attend 
school. One hardlv knows whether to laugh or cry over the 
imtoward fate of Phebe's new gown, made from her mother's red 
flannel petticoat ! This, having been hung out upon a line to 
dry, fell a victim to a lawless marauder from neighbor Roberts' 
pig pen, and Phebe was bereft indeed. Let us hope that good 
Mistress Roberts possessed an extra flannel petticoat of brilliant 
hue, which was made a free will offering in behalf of Phebe's 
education. Every mother knows that there could have been no 
limit to the daily acts of self-denial which the frontier mother 
i:»racticed. 

Those who remember Katherine Gaylord unite in describing 
her as small and frail or at least of hardly medium stature, 
with blue eyes, brown or fair hair, delicate complexion, and 
fine features— hardly our ideal of a rugged pioneer woman. 
Power of spirit cannot alwavs be gauged by power of body, nor 
force of character by outward seeming. In old age she is 
described by one still living, who knew her well, as a "very 
intelligent, agreeable and highly respected " person in her com- 
niunitv. 

It W(nild seem that the family had friends in Wyoming, for 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 379 

history states that a brother of Aaron, '' \vhf> died in tlie service," 
had settled there. 

In December, 1777, six months before his death, Aaron Gaylord 
is upon the WestmoreLand records as one of the appointed 
" fence-viewers " for the ensuing year. In those days of few and 
uncertain boundaries, this must have been an important work. 

The valley now, 1776 to 1778, held hundreds c^f homes, with 
barns, stacks of grain and everything in plenty, agriculturally 
considered. The commercial status is partly shown by the fol- 
lowing list of prices : 

Men's farm laljor, tliiee summer months, per day 5s 3d. 

Women's labor, spinning, per week 6s. 

Making horse-slioes, and slioeing horse Ss. 

Taverners, best dinner — — - ..2s. 

Tav^erners, mug of flip, with 2 gills rum -4s. 

Good yarn stockings, a pair _ los. 

Beaver hats, best - - 4.^ • 

Tobacco, in hank, or leaf, I pound .-... gd. 

Good check flannel, yard wide _ .. Ss. 

Winterfed beef, per pound 7s. 

Good barley, per bushel — - 8s. 

Dozen eggs 8d. 

Shad, apiece - -6d. 

Wyoming was an extreme frontier, the key to a large territory 
beyond. The Six Nations were within a few hours' canoeing, and 
nearly all the able-bodied men of the valley were now, 1778, called 
to help save their country — leaving their own homes to possible 
destruction. An outbreak seemed impending. 

Given these conditions, it was an unaccountable fact that Con- 
gress did not respond to the appeals sent now by the helpless 
settlers for protection. Those remaining did all they could. 
They went to the field with ritie as well as hoe. They sent out 
scouting parties to watch the Indian trails and report weekly. In 
this service Aaron Gaylord must have shared. 

In May the scouts began to encounter the savages, although it 
had previously seemed the enemy's policy to remain in Inding, 
apparently fearing— as it proved— to alarm the settlers and cause 
the recall of the two coiupanies from the seat of war before the 
Six Nations were readv for the attack. 



?8o 



Tin-: I'ATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Now and tlien small squads of Indians, covered with paint, 
Avould land before the fort, making warlike demonstrations, to the 
great alarm of those within. 

People from the outer settlements began to come into the forts. 
Congress was again notified that an attack was imminent, but 
still the Wyoming companies were not allowed to return. 




^^f^^^^^M^M^m 










■^^^^& 







Appeals to justice, mercy or policy seemed to haye no effect upon 
Congress in its strange obtuseness to the dreadful peril of the 
colonists. About thirty Wyoming soldiers did return "with or 
without leaye," but even then, the number of fighters was appall- 
ingly small. 

It is probable that it was at this time of confusion and absence 
of regular officers, that Aaron Gaylord was appointed temporary 
commander of the fort, in accordance with the account given by 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 38 1 

Katherine to her children ; but in the absence of official record, 
we are obliged to pass this by as tradition. 

The last of June, Senecas and other Indians to the number 
of six or seven hundred, with four hundred British provincials 
and a number of tories, descended the river, landed twenty miles 
above the fort, crossed the vallev, and murdered several settlers. 

A prisoner taken by them was sent to the fort demanding' its 
surrender, which was refused. 

A council c^f war was immediately held at the fort, at which the 
majority argued that, as no help could be expected, the massacre 
of the fort's companv was onlv the question of a few clays, and 
that the only possible way of salvation was to attack and defeat 
the enemv. 

A small minority, of which Aaron Gaylord was one, c^pposed 
this plan, feeling that it was worse than folly to venture out 
knowing nothing of the strength of the invaders ; but being over- 
ruled, Aaron Gaylord prepared to go with the others, saying : ''/ 
7viIIgfl,for I ivoiild rather die tliaii be ealled a eo7vard at such a time as 
this." 

One account states that they started early the following morning, 
Julv 3, 1778, but ]^liner's history of Wyoming says that they went 
out at noon, marched four miles, and formed a line of battle near 
Fort Wintermoot, where the fighting began at four in the after- 
noon and the anxious listeners at the fort could tell that the 
battle was on. 

During the half hour of open fighting they drew near to the 
river, and when about eighty rods away, with Menockasy Island 
a mile distant, it was suddenly discovered that they were sur- 
rounded by Indians, who had remained stealthily in ambush until 
they had passed. They had fallen into the trap. A hideous 
battle yell, repeated six distinct times, coming from every side, 
told the dreadful truth. The Six Nations had surrounded them. 

An order to wheel and face the rear was misunderstood as an 
order to retreat to the fort, which was clearly an impossibility. 
In the confusion thus occasioned, resistance to such overwhelming- 
numbers was fatal, and so the battle ended and the massacre 
began ; while the helpless listeners at the fort, realizing a change 
and fearing the worst, waited in vain agony for those who would 



382 THE PATRON SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

never come again. Only now and then an exliausted, bleeding 
straggler would stagger in to tell his heart-rending stor}-. 

Menockasy Island offered their only hope, and many sprang 
into the river to swim across. A few escaped, but many were 
butchered as they swam, or shot in the thigh and reserved for tor- 
ture, or, happilv, killed as they surrendered. In their frenzy, men 
shot old friends in cold blood, and one tory was seen deliberately 
to shoot his own brother. 

Out of three hundred who went forth, over half were murdered, 
comparatively few falling in battle. 

The leaders of the two armies were of the same name — Butler — 
and were said to belong to one family. 

A detachment of thirty-five men arrived at the fort at evening, 
but too late. An attempt to concentrate the people of the valley 
at the fort was a failure, as fugitives were seeking the swamps 
and woods in every direction. With one company of one hundred 
women and children there was but one man. Few had pro- 
visions. " Children of misery, baptized in tears," were born and 
died in the wilderness and swamp. 

About nine in the evening there came to Katherine Gaylord in 
the fort, a worn-out fugitive — a neighbor of the fort cabins. He 
brought to her a hat, narrow brimmed, high crowned — with a bul- 
let hole through the top — her husband's. 

He told her all she ever knew of his death. Together the two 
men had crossed to Menockasy Island closely followed by the 
savages. It was nearly dusk, and the neighbor, running ahead, 
secreted himself under an uprooted tree, screened by bushes. An 
instant later Aaron (iaylord ran by, hotly pursued by the Indians. 
He was almost immediately overtaken and scalped. The savages 
returned, peering here and there, but in the gathering gloom 
soon gave up their search and disappeared. 

The man in hiding dared not venture forth until after dark, 
although he knew b\- the sound that his friend lived for some 
time. 

At length, creeping cautiously out, his foot struck against the 
hat of the comrade who had fallen a sacrifice to savage hate. 
Hastily securing it, he brought it with him to the heart-broken 
wife at the fort — a last relic of a life that was past. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN RE\'OLUTIOX. 383 

Before he went out to his death Aaron Gavhjrd had counselled 
long with his wife, and had fcjrmed careful plans for her flight, 
should he never come back. Even after mounting his horse he 
had ridden back again to his own door, and handing her the 
wallet which contained all the money he had in the world — a few 
dollars only — said: "Take this, if I never return it maybe of 
some use to you." 

That he never would return, seems to liave been firmlv im- 
pressed upon the hearts of both husband and wife. The children, 
Lorena and Lemuel, afterward related to their children his 
thoughtfulness in this planning. Lemuel remembered his father 
as he sat upon his horse giving final directions ; and how, in 
obedience to his father's wish, he went at once to a distant pasture 
and brought in their horses to the fort. 

"For," said Aaron Gaylord simply, but with a thought covering 
their entire future, "you may need them." 

Katherine bade him good bye as a pioneer woman should — 
bravely and hopefully without, in spite of the sinking heart within ; 
but she seemed to know tliey would meet no more in this life. 

" Great strength is bought with pain." There was no time for 
tears. 

Recalling his wishes and plans, she hurriedly made ready for 
instant flight. Upon one horse she hastily packed clothing and 
provisions ; upon the other the four were to ride alternately. 
Family tradition however, records that because of a sudden lame- 
ness, Lemuel was forced to ride much of the way, and Katherine 
herself walked. 

Shortly after midnight they rode out of the fort into the hor- 
rible blackness beyond, into pathless woods, amongst "savage 
beasts and still more savage men," into a veritable hades through 
which they must pass or die ! Long, weary, unmarked miles 
stretched out before her, while he to whom "her heart had turned 
out o' all the rest i' the world" was suddenly gone to the land that 
is afar off ; his body that was so dear, lying uncared for, behind 
her in the wilderness. Think of it, "oh, women safe in happy 
homes." 

Little Lorena never forgot that awful moment, and years after 
would vividlv recall it to her grandchildren. " I was Lorena," 



384 Tin-: TATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

she would sav impressively, "and I was the youngest, only seven 
years old ; and I remember but one incident of that night. As 
my mother, sister and myself, mounted upon one horse, and my 
brother (fourteen years of age) leading the other, went out from 
the fort into the darkness, mother turned, and speaking to her 
neighbors whom slie was leaving behind, said: 'Good bye, 
friends ! God help us ! ' Her voice was so unnatural that I looked 
up into her face. I shall never forget the expression I saw there. 
It was white and rigid, and drawn with suffering that might have 
been the work of years instead of hours. It was so unlike my 
mother's face that I hid my own in her garments." 

Others went out also, fugitives from their own ; but from these 
Katherine and her pitifully helpless little group were almost 
immediately separated, each seeking safety in the way that seemed 
best to himself. Some elected to remain at the fort, and these 
were present at the surrender the following day. Investigation 
has proved that the manv tales of atrocities done at the surrender 
are in a great measure untrue, as but (jne murder was committed, 
although the Indians could not be kept from plunder. After the 
withdrawal of the British forces, however, a few days later, the 
savages began an unchecked career of pillage, fire and murder ; 
until those who had remained, hoping the worst was over, were 
forced to abandon the settlement, which was not fully re-estab- 
lished until December, 1799. 

At daybreak Katherine had reached the thick recesses of the 
forest, but could see from afar the smoke of burning homes, and 
knew that her flight had been none too hasty. All day long they 
hurried on. The first night they came upon a settler's deserted 
cabin, which sheltered them. The three succeeding nights and 
many others they camped under the primeval forest trees, where, 
said Lorena, "we tired children, feeling secure with our heads 
upon mother's lap, slept soundly, while she watched the long 
night through, listening to the howling of the wolves and 
hearing in every rustling leaf the stealthy tread of an Indian." 
How pathetic their trust ! how overwhelming the burden 
thrust so suddenly upon the frail shoulders of the slender young 
mother ! 

After the second day one horse became so lame that they left it 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 385 

to its fate, and were thus obliged to plod wearily on foot, the 
remaining- steed carrying their goods. 

On the fourth day they arrived at a large stream. Here, either 
finding or building a raft, they loaded nearly all their precious 
stores upon it, intending to float them to a ford which they knew 
must be somewhere below% hoping there to cross. 

To their dismay, after starting the raft they were told (perhaps 
by fugitives like themselves) that there were Indians below. 
Small wonder then, after hearing this, that even to save all they 
owned upon earth thev should not venture down the stream. So 
abandoning their goods, as they had previously abandoned their 
horse, they found a crossing elsewhere. 

Their situation was now desperate indeed. They had their one 
horse with four to ride ; one blanket strapped upon the saddle, 
for four to use ; a precious box of tinder and flint ; and one mus- 
ket, with a small quantitv of ammunition, which must be hoarded 
to the utmost and saved for defence. How many of those hard 
nights may we suppose that Katherine Gaylord slept under that 
solitary blanket ? Not one, with her three children to be sheltered 
and comforted ! 

Their clothing must very soon have become worn and soiled 
enough ; and this, to a person of Katherine Gaylord's natural 
refinement, must have been an added bit of distress — small though 
It was in comparison with greater burdens to be borne. 

The bullet-pierced hat and leathern wallet were carried always 
in her hand or about her person, and were in this way kept from 
disaster and brought safely to her father's house. As long as she 
lived she treasured them in an old chest, from whence children 
and grandchildren would reverently bring them forth, to illustrate 
the never-old story of her escape from the Indians, and of the 
death of their heroic grandfather, Aaron Gaylord. After she was 
gone, these priceless relics were in some way most unfortunately 
lost. 

And now for weeks they toiled slowly on and on, following the 
trail indicated by blazed trees, with many wanderings aside into 
the pathless forest, with weakness and weariness, suffering and 
danger, but ever on and on tcjward home. 

After the loss of their provisions, they subsisted for several 
25 



386 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

davs iii)on berries, sassafras root, birch bark, or whate\-er they 
could gather by the way, not daring to start a blaze or fire a 
musket so near the dreaded foe. Well for them that it was sum- 
mer. Once they went from Thursday to Sunday afternoon with- 
out food. They met then a party of friendly Indians who fed 
them ; but we can hardly imagine their terror at first sight of a 
red man ! They afterward met other friendly Indians as they left 
Wyoming farther and farther behind, and were never once refused 
aid in all their terrible journey. 

The ccnintry, however, was very sparsely settled, and many of 
the cabins they came across were deserted. As days grew into 
weeks, they no longer feared to kindle a fire at night or to shoot 
game, although it was necessary t(j hoard their slender stock of 
ammunition with utmost economy. 

They sometimes met stragglers from the army, or hunting 
parties, but these were invariably kind and helpful, and such 
encounters must have sent many bright rays of hope and courage 
through the gloom and unutterable loneliness of the vast prim- 
eval forest, in the dreary days when they saw no human face but 
their (jwn. 

Once when little Lorena and her sister Phebe were running 
on in advance of mother and brother — though never out of 
sight — singing and chasing butterflies, gathering wild flowers, 
forgetting already the past, fearing nothing so long as they had 
mother, they came upon two men sitting on the ground. These 
])roved to be hunters, who divided with Katherine their stock 
of food as they heard her sad story and helped her on her way. 

But this incident made a great impression upon Lorena, owing 
to the fright of Phebe, who screaming in terror, literally dragged 
Lorena back to her mother, scratching her face, tearing her gar- 
ments (for the latter mishap there being no remedy, although 
Dame Nature would mend the former !) and greatly alarming tiie 
others. She remembered how her brother, the lad Lemuel, grown 
since Wyoming to man's estate, his mother's confidante, pro- 
tector, and sole reliance — stepped boldly to the front, musket in 
hand, ready to defend his mother and sisters witli his life if need 
be. And the surprise and hearty sympathy of the two men 
remained always a warm memory with Lorena. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 387 

Another clay, losing the trail, they came at nig-htfall in sight of 
a large building with many lighted windows, which they took to 
be a wayside tavern. Within they could see a company of men, 
seemingly soldiers, seated at a table eating their supper. 

Faint for want of food and exausted with travel, still Katherine 
Gaylord hesitated. With the memory of the British and Tory at 
Wyoming fresh upon her, how could she trust any man ! 

Desperation at last gave her desperation's courage, and enter- 
ing a back room, she sank down in the darkness with her little 
girls drawn close beside her, while her boy strode sturdily 
forward into the room where the men were gathered, and asked 
lor food for his mother and sisters. 

In a moment a light was brought, and they were surrounded by 
the astonisiied men, who with curious and pitying faces gazed at 
the forlorn little group and listened to their pathetic storv with 
manhood's unaccustomed tears. Nothing could exceed their 
kindness as they rivaled each other in giving comfort to the poor 
wanderers. 

The unwonted luxuries of enough to eat, a bed in which to sleep, 
and strong, ready protectors, were theirs that night ; while the 
sense of security must have given to the poor mother such a rest 
as had not been hers for manv long weeks. 

"The gentlest woman," said Lorena in after vears, "could not 
have ministered to our needs more thoughtfullv and generously 
than did these rough, stalwart men." 

In the morning they were loaded with provisions and sent on 
their way with many kind and hearty words. 

They never forgot these friends, although they never knew who 
or what they were. Possibly, in the same way, their descendants 
may have heard this tale ; and sometimes, even to this day, may 
ponder the fate of those hapless refugees whom their ancestors 
befriended in the wilderness. 

They often heard at night the howling of wild beasts, but had 
never been molested. Now, however, for several days an unde- 
fined feeling of unusual danger near at hand, had haunted Kath- 
erine, who seems to have been one of those prescient souls, 
delicately susceptible to impressions which one of coarser fiber 
covdd not feel. 



388 THK PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

One night ;is they camped by their fire they caught a glimpse of 
a long, crouching, stealthy form in the underbrush, and knew that 
some savage creature was on their track. All the night long they 
could see his gleaming eyes in the firelight, but he dared not 
attack them. Neither dared he touch them by daylight, and in 
the morning they caiitiously and fearfully went on their way, not 
venturing to stop for rest or food. Lemuel led, and the others 
followed upon the staunch back of their sorely-tried friend — the 
one remaining horse. A driving rain set in, and tlie blanket 
formed but poor protection. 

All day long they moved slowly on, with that fearful nightmare 
creeping ever softly behind — biding Ids time ! 

When night drcAV near their outlook seemed hopeless. To go 
on in the darkness and storm would be impossible. The soaking 
rain precluded all hope of a fire, while to stop without a fire 
meant instant attack, and — a reward to the dogged determination 
of the brute behind them, of which the}^ dared not think. 

With the knowledge of all this and with a dreadful doom seem- 
ingly so near, the faith and fortitude of the heroic mother did not 
fail. She drew her frightened children as closely as possible to 
her side, and in her helplessness prayed ceaselessly for that help 
which to human vision could never come. 

Faith and works go hand in hand to fulfillment ; and while she 
praved she kc})! moving, straining her eyes in the darkness which 
settled so awfully upon them. And Katherine Gaylord never 
doubted that the Ever-Present Power in which she trusted led 
their feet neither to right nor to left, but directly into a little 
clearing where the dark outlines of a deserted cabin with open 
door appeared to their gladdened eyes ! 

Straight through the friendly portal — not stopping to dismount ! 
Lemuel swung to the heavy door, dropped the bar into its place, 
and they were saved. Often in after years did Katherine say that 
she believed that they were directly led bv Providence. 

The cabin contained one room, with a small lean-to in which 
the horse found luxuries undreamt of in his recent philosophizing 
— warmth and shelter. Tlie place had evidently been abandoned 
in haste, for they found stacks of firewood, with potatoes and 
corn meal in plenty. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AJMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



389 



A good fire soon warmed body and soul ; and with safety, 
shelter, warmth, dry clothing and a hot supper of roasted potatoes 
and corn meal cakes, they felt a rusli of fresh courage and new 
life. Their steadfast friend in the lean-to shared with them — 
though whether or not, in the exuberance of their reaction, the 
children roasted for liim the potatoes, history does not say. 




SITE OF THE HOUSE IN BURLINGTON' WHERE KATHERI.NE GAYLORD LIVED 
FOR FORTY YEARS. 



And then they sat around the glowing fire, while Katherine 
thanked the Power that led them hither. 

In the morning the panther had disappeared, but fearing its 
return they remained in their place of safety, and rested two days, 
then went on, strengthened by their enforced period of waiting. 

Somewhere on this weary road they must have met, but passed 
unseen the brother of Katherine, sent out by her anxious father, 
who had heard of the Wyoming tragedy, to find and help her 
home. "Our unknown losses!" What a subject for thought. 
The brother however must have kept the trail which she often 
lost ; and so it came about that she was first to reach home. 



390 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

After nianv weeks, as they saw once more the hills that compassed 
that dear home on eA'ery side, how tumultuous her thoughts ! while 
the mingled fear and suffering of the weary way by which they 
had come, already seemed as a troubled dream. 

The ncAvs of their coming went before, and all through the 
familiar streets as they passed, old friends came out to greet them 
as those risen from the dead. Many went on with them to her 
father's house. As he came out to meet her, brave Katherine 
broke down at last, and throwing herself into his arms, burst into 
tears — the first she had shed since that fatal night at Wyoming. 
And not the least touching of all was her determined attempt still 
to keep up, prefacing her tears by the cheerful greeting : " Well, 
we are tiie worst looking lot you ever saw." 

Love, home and care were hers once more — even though that 
which was gone could never return. Here she found refuge at 
last ; but slie could not rest while her country suffered. Although 
she had seemingly given all — yet her patriotic heart consented to 
one more sacrifice. 

In 1780, when Lemuel was about sixteen, she gave him to serve 
his country in its need, as he had upheld his mother in her own. 
Remember, he was her only son and she w^as a widow. When we 
realize all that he was to her, we can more fully appreciate the 
intensity of her patriotism as shown by this final offering. 
Lemuel was at the surrender of Cornwallis, and then, some time 
after the war, he left his mother at New Cambridge and returned 
to Wyoming, drawn perhaps by more interests than one ; for 
here he married Sylvia Murray, daughter of Noah Murray. They 
settled finally in Illinois and had a family of ten children. 

Phebe, Katherine's eldest daughter, married Levi Frisbie, and 
in 1800 moved to Orwell, Pennsylvania, where they had five 
children. 

Lorena, the "baby," married, in 1799, Lynde Phelps, of Bur- 
lington, Connecticut, and was the mother of seven daughters. 

So Katherine Gaylord lived, in spite of fate, to see twenty-two 
grandchildren. After her brood had flown and no longer needed 
the care which once was literal life to them, she stayed on with her 
parents and cared for them. Her father, James Cole, living to be 
over ninety, was one day left for a short time alone in the house. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 



391 



In some way the roof caught fire and the building was burned to 
the ground. It was with difficulty that Mr. Cole was rescued, 
and shortly after this he died. x\lmost nothing was saved, and 
again Katherine was homeless. 

She went then to live with Lorena, and for forty years she 
passed in and out among them, taking the liveliest interest in 
helping to " raise " the seven daughters of her daughter, who 
remembered ever her kind, motherly care, and the quiet, patient, 
Christian character she maintained. 

In 1799 she had united with the Congregational Church of 
Bristol, and she proved ever the truth of the beautiful thought, so 
suggestive of her spirit : 

" Our life is no poor cisterned store, 
That lavish years are draining low, 
But living streams that, ^veiling o'er, 
Fresh from the living fountains tlow." 

Her sturdy independence 
was characteristic to the 
last. When in her nineties 
her daughter Lorena 
begged her to lie down in 
the daytime to rest, she 
determinedly refused, giv- 
ing as her reason that she 
" did not wish to get in the 
habit of it ! " 

In extreme old age, later 
events faded from her 
mind, but Wyoming and 
its fateful memories were 
never dim. 

She is said once to have 
been so overcome by the 
sight of a picture representing an Indian in the act of scalping a 
man, t'lat she fell to the floor — so vividly did the horrible past 
return to her. 

At the very last of her life here, she would sit for hours by the 
fire, lost to her surroundings, apparently living over the days 




HOUSE IN WHICH CATHERINE GAVLORD DIED. 



392 



THE PATRON SAINTS OK CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



gone by. She would sometimes start up in terror, calling to her 
children to hide from the Indians ! Again she would seem to be 
in fear of wild beasts and cry out pitifully. Sometimes she would 
speak her iiusband's name, and smile — seeming to hold communion 
with him. Perhaps she did — who knows? And at the last, after 
ninety-fiye years, she passed peacefully away, feeling no doubt in 
regard to the love of her youth, that while 

" Clouds sail and waters flow, 
Our souls must journey on, 
But it cann(;t I'c ill to go 

The wa\' that thou hast oone." 



0/ -; '.'iJM 




A. 






Monument erected to Katherine CJayhnd in Burlington, Con- 
necticut, bearing the following inscri})tion : 

Katiif.kixk Coi.K Gaylord, 
Wife of 
LiEUTi'NANT Aaron Gay lord, 
1745 — 1840. 
In meinor}' of her sufferings and heroism at the massacre of W^yoming, 
177S, this stone is erected by her descendants and the members of the 
Katherine Gaylord Ciiapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion, July 3, 1895. 



DAUGHTERS OF TliE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



393 



The storm and tu- 
m u 1 1 of her life 
seemed to follow her 
even unto death. At 
the time of her going 
a terrific snow storm 
occ II r r e d in N e w 
England, blocking 
the roads and shut- 
ting off all possibility 
of immediate inter- 
ment. The village 
carpenter, who was 
also the village un- 
dertaker, had prob- 
ably time to provide 
a suitable casket be- 
fore the storm ; but 
it was several days 
before the men could 
venture out even to 
break paths. Owing 
to a fierce wind, in 
m any places the 
paths had to be twice 
cleared. 
When at length the last storm which should ever rage over the 
head of devoted Katherine had raved itself into calm, a handful 
of men left the "Center" to do for her the last service she would 
ever need at their hands. They started Avith horse and sleigh, 
but after going a few rods the plunging steed tore off a shoe, 
cutting his foot so badly as to disable him ; and so they abandoned 
his help, even as Katherine had abandoned her steed near 
Wyoming long years ago. The meu'then drew the sleigh across 
the drifted fields to the place two miles away, Avhere, heedless of 
all tumult now, the body of the heroine lay in peace. 

Greatly exhausted by the hard road and digging, the men were 
oblie-ed to rest and take food before making further effort. 




394 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

One still living, who as a boy was present at this strange burial, 
recalls clearly the occasion, and how the body of Katherine was 
placed upon the sleigh, while her old friends and neighbors with 
their own hands drew it to its final place; even as in ancient 
times great heroes were borne upon the shoulders of those w^ho 
would do them honor. Eight men w^ere present at this final scene, 
but no woman was among them. A tragic ending to a tragic life ! 

" Never more, O storm-tossed soul — 
Never more from wind or tide. 
Never more from billows roll, 
Wilt thou need tln'self to hide ! " 

The name of Aaron Gaylord may be found upon a list of the 
killed, given in the History of Wyoming. Also, in a quaint set of 
verses upon the " Revolutionary War," may be found this couplet : 

" Next, Aaron Gaylord unto death did yield, 
With Stoddart Brown on the tented field." 

The Wvoming monument is situated in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsyl- 
vania, and has upon it two Bristol names — Aaron Gaylord and 
Elias Roberts. The following is a copy of the inscription : 
Near this spot was fought on the afternoon of Friday, the third day 

of July, 1778, The Battle of Wyoming, 
In which a small band of patriotic Americans, chietly the undisci- 
plined, the youthful, and the aged, spared by inefficiency 
from the distant ranks of the Republic, led by Col. 
Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Dennison, 
With a courage that deserved success, boldly met and bravely fought 

a combined British, Tory and Indian force of thrice their numljcr. 
Numerical superiority alone gave success to the invader, and wide- 
spread havoc, desolation and ruin marked his sa^'age 
and bloody footsteps through the vallev. 
This Monument 
Commen-.orative of these events and of the actors in them lias 
been erected 
Over Tiie Bones Of The Slain 
By their descendants and others, who gratefully appreciate the 
services and sacriliccs of their patriot ancestors. 

Florence E. D. Muzzy. 

(mRS. ADRIAN JAMES MVZZV.) 



ABI HUMASTON 




RS. ABI BLAKESLEE HUMASTON, for whom the 
Thomaston Daughters of the American Revolution 
have the honor of naming their cliapter, was a native 
of Nortlibury, now Thomaston. She was the oldest 
of the ten children of Jude Blakeslee and of Experience his wife. 
Her parents were cousins, Jude Blakeslee being the son of Abram 
Blakeslee, and Experience being the daughter of Abram's brother, 
Thomas. Jude Blakeslee, x^bi's father, was known as Ensign 
Blakeslee, a title which indicates that he had a share in the 
local military proceedings of the time, but there is little actual 
record concerning him to be found. 

Thomas Blakeslee, the grandfather of Abi, was born in 1700, in 
North Haven, Conn., and from there moved to Sunderland, Mass., 
where he married Mary Scott, a daughter of Richard Scott of 
Sunderland. In 1731 they removed to Northbury, Conn., and 
were the third family to settle there. The signature of Thomas 
Blakeslee appears upon the earliest documents of Northbury, and 
the town records are replete with his name and show him to have 
been a man of considerable prominence in town affairs. He was 
the first captain of the " Northbury Train Band," regarded in that 
day as an office second in importance to that of the minister. To 
this office he was appointed at the May session of the General 
Assembly of 1740, the Colonial Records of Connecticut of that 
date having the following entry : " This Assembly do establish 
and confirm Mr. Thomas Blakeslee to be Captain of the Third 
Company of the Train Band in the town of Waterbury, and order 
that he be conditioned accordingly." His name also heads the 
list of petitioners of the "Up River" inhabitants of the town 
of Northbury, who in September, 1736, craved "the privilege of 
hiring a minister for the three winter months." 



396 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

The husband of Ahi Blakeslee, Jesse Humaston, was the young- 
est of the ten children of Caleb Humaston and of his wife, 
Susannah Todd. Their home was in Plymouth, and so far as 
known. North Haven was the home of Jesse Humaston's grand- 
parents. 

According to the record in "Connecticut Men of the Revolu- 
tion," Jesse Humaston responded to the first call for troops made by 
the Legislature in April and May of 1775, the call which followed 
close upon the Lexington Alarm. He was a private in the Eighth 
Companv of the First Regiment under the command of General 
Wooster. This regiment was encamped during the summer 
at Harlem, and in September, 1775, under orders from Congress, 
was marched under General Schuvler to the Northern Depart- 
ment and took active part in the operations along Lakes George 
and Champlain. The regiment assisted in the capture of St. 
John and was afterwards stationed in Montreal. Much sickness 
pre\ailed in this command and many soldiers were furloughed or 
discharged in the following October and November. Jesse 
Humaston received his discharge November 25, 1775. 

The tradition of the hardships endured by these soldiers is still 
preserved in the families of Abi Humaston's descendants, and 
the incidents of her life as given in this sketch are contributed 
by her grandchildren and great grandciiildren, but the narrative 
is very incomplete and made up of disconnected reminiscences. 

During the first years of the Revolution Connecticut was full 
of Tories,* and the bitter feeling on the part of patriots against 
Tories was esi)ecially intense early in the war. In ^NLirch, 1775, 
complaints against individuals and companies began to be made 
to the Cieneral Assembly and at each session thereafter for several 
years. Connecticut papers published lists of names of Tories and 
held them up to public view as enemies of their country. They 
filled the jails to overfiowing. 

There seems no room for doubt that one of the greatest obsta- 
cles the patriots had to contend with was the Tory. The Tory 
colonel, John Butler, was in command of Tories and Indians at 

*Tlic following four paragraphs concerning Tories are taken in part verbatim 
from articles in The Connecticut Quarterly, Vol. IV, Nos. 2 and 3 (1S9S), 
entitled The Tories of Connecticut, by James Shepard, Esq., of New Britain. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



397 



the horrible massacre of Wyoming'. Tor}- guides led Trvon at 
the burning of Danbury. New Haven was plundered under the 
guidance of a captain of a Tory command. The Tories continu- 
ally carried on an illicit trade between Connecticut and Long 
Island. Every county and town had its Tories. But Fairfield 
comity was a Tory center, and the hills of southeastern Litchfield 
county — including the adjoining c:orners of Plymouth, Harwinton, 









lip - 




b 



THE HOME OF ABI HUMASTON. 



(On Huraastijii Hill, between Thomiiston and Xorthtield.) 



Burlington and Bristol — were a stronghold of Toryism and meet- 
ings were held there from all parts of the state. 

In the Burlington ledges at the southwest of the town is a 
cave known as the Tory Den, which was often resorted to by 
Tories for longer or shorter periods of refuge. For their own 
defense bands of Tories worked together first on one farm, then 
on another. If a party of the Sons of Liberty approached, the 
Tories fled to the Den, their faithful wives beinof always on the 



398 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

watch, who, at the sight of Tory hunters, would blow a liorn or a 
conch shell as a warning. 

But so watchful were the patriots of Northbury, even of their 
soldiers, that in October, 1775, it was reported to the General 
Assembly that a major portion of one company in Northbury 
(now Plymouth) was inclined to Toryism and a committee was 
appointed to inquire and report. 

Moreover Nortlibury being a frontier settlement, was exposed 
on the north and west to attacks from the Indians, which kept its 
people ever upon the alert. The Tories made frequent raids, con- 
fiscating for their use any supplies or provisions which thev could 
get. The Northbury families had been constant sufferers, and an 
instance of our young heroine's disapproval of Tory methods is 
related by a grandson. 

"The British or Tories had once been through this part of the 
state and on the niarcli had foraged and stolen all the provisions 
which they could find, taking at the time all the supplies of meal 
and sausages which my grandmother had prepared. Hearing of 
their second coming, she had a supply of sausages on hand, made 
especially for them, the ingredients of which were red broadcloth 
and turnips. The outside of the bags were duly greased and the 
sausages were hung on a stick to dry, as was the manner of 
preparation in those days. She had warning of the approach of 
' those durned Tories,' as they were called by the farmers ; for she 
could hear them as they came across ' Castle Bridge,' over the 
Naugatuck River. She hurriedly placed the sausage in evidence, 
which on their arrival they seized and made off with, notwith- 
standing her entreaties to leave some." 

It is not recorded that the Tories ever came for a third supply 
of sausages, but there is a tradition that during those troublous 
times our heroine, like many other women in patriot homes, 
made tea from the leaves of the spice busli, drving tlie leaves 
herself. Pearlash she made from corncobs burned to ashes on the 
cleanly waslied hearth of the fireplace, which she then carefully 
gathered and used in place of saleratus. 

Jesse Humaston and other soldiers, wlien leaving home for 
the army, took many dogs with them, which on their march 
home from Canada thev were obliged to kill for food to 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 399 

keep themselves from starvation. Rumor also says that their 
buckskin pockets which had been made for them by their mothers 
and sisters and wives, they roasted and ate. Their shoes were worn 






'''•"'-. •''--. ^^,-.. .-. :<; i^^;<.^:"V;vJ' 





















(, //r'i >^\ e/^<-: IL //^y^y" '',' <^- /^, /S2^ _/<^^. V,V..-_7 

facsimile: copy of AKI HUMASTON'S PENMANSHir. 
(From the fore part of a book of poems, written by Abi Humaston.) 

out and they were forced to march barefooted through the snow, 
their feet frozen and bleeding and staining the snow as they 
marched throuo;h it. 



400 THE PATRON SATNTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Five sons and one daughter, Sydney, were born to Jesse and 
Abi Ilumaston between the years 1786 and 1797. Two, Bennet 
and Morris, died in childhood within eight days of each other, and 
two sons born in the following three years received in turn the 
same names Bennet and Morris. Three sons grew up to man- 
hood, but only two children (a son and daughter) survived their 
motlier, who lived to be eighty-eight years old. Morris, the 
youngest, died in 1828 when thirty-one years old, and Caleb, the 
second, in 1839, wlien fiftv-one years old, his father having died 
two years previous. 

A granddaugliter * relates the storv of her grandmother Abi 
Humaston's efforts to teach her to write when she was almost too 
young to hold a pen. She was also taught by her grandmother 
the Commandments, and as she sat on a stool at her grand- 
mother's side, repeating them after her, Abi Ilumaston used to 
say, " Child, it is an easy matter for people to be Christians in 
these davs when churches are near bv, heated and cushioned, but 
think what we used to do; ride on a pillion from two to five miles, 
weather below zero, and then sit in a church without a fire, have 
morning service and a long sermon, and in the afternoon another 
service, making an all dav affair of it, with the long ride home in 
the cold, supper to get, and the work of the family to do." 

Abi Humaston was a devoted Episcopalian, ready and glad 
to do her part in any church work. Her Bible and prayer book 
were the companions of her old age. To the last she took great 
interest in the affairs of the day and was fond of the company of 
her many friends. vShe was extremely hospitable, and in her liome 
there was always room for one more and a hearty welcome for 
all. She was a woman of strong convictions and well educated 
for that period. She was a diligent reader and at the age of eighty 
could read fine jirint without the aid of glasses. She wrote 
a little book of poems, a verse or two on each birthday, the last 
one being written on her eighty-fourth birthday. 

From this quaint little book, which is in tlie possession of her 
granddaughter,! the following verses are taken. They were 

^-^Mrs. Kmily A. WoodriiO", Eldorado Springs, Mo. 

+ Kmily A. Woodruff, Eldorado Springs, Mo., from whose letter the story of 
Abi Humaston's Bible Instruction and what follows is taken. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 401 

written by Abi Humaston upon her eighty-first birthday, April 
28, 1840, and are characteristic of the thought of lier time, which 
expressed itself even in poetry usually in terms of pity and 
religion. 

My children dear, who now are here, 
I hope you'll seek and pray, 
To Jesus Christ, who gave his life. 
To wash our guilt and sins away. 



Don't take God's holy name in vain. 
Nor dare His Sabbath to profane. 
Nor curse, nor swear, nor lie or steal — 
In anger — God with such will deal. 

If worldly goods you do possess 
Pit}' the poor and the distressed ; 
Alwaj's be kind, and mercy show, 
And think them only lent to you. 

If you are poor and stand in need. 
Look in God's word and you can read. 
That He has riches kept in store. 
For those who humbly Him adore. 

Although each poem is dated, the day, month and year being 
given, Abi Humaston did not once sign her name, and nothing 
bearing her signature has been found. But the owner of the little 
book of poems cut a leaf froiTi tlie fore part of the book and sent 
it to the writer of this chapter sketch as a sample of Abi Humas- 
ton's penmanship. It is a record of the names and birth dates of 
Abi Humaston's children ; also of her husband's and her own 
birth dates. It was written eighty-five years ago, and bespeaks 
the careful, cultured hand of a woman who when a girl attended 
the country schools of Connecticut previous to the Revolution. 

Short and sturdy of stature, with abundant snowy white hair, 
hidden under the conventional cap of the day, she retained lier 
faculties till the last day of her long life, which was spent wholly 
in her native town of Thomaston (originally called Northbury, 
1739, later Plymouth, 1795), where many of her descendants are 
still living. 
26 



4o: 



Tin-: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Mrs. Abi Humaston was buried in the Old Cemetery on tlie 
site of tlie present Town Hall building in Thomaston, and was 
afterwards removed to Hillside Cemetery, overlooking the pictur- 
esque valley of the Naugatuck river. 




BURIAL PLACE AND HEAU.STO.\ES OF JESSE AND ABI HUMASTON. 

The inscriptions on the gravestones erected to Abi Humaston 
and her husband are as follows : 



In menioiv of 

Jesse Humaston 

who died Feb. 21*' 1837 

aged 87 yrs. 



In inenioiy of Abi, 

relict of Jesse Humaston 

who died May 7"' 1S47 

aged 88 yrs. 

Frances E. Blakeslcc. 



The grandchildren of Mrs. Abi Humaston wlio furnished incidents for this paper 
are : 

Caleb and Morris Humaston of Thoniaston, Conn. 

Mrs. Emily Woodruff of Kldorado Springs, Mo. 

Mrs. Minerva P. Judd of Watertown, Conn. 
Other authorities consulted are : 

The Histories of Plymouth and Waterbury, and the Plymouth Town Records. 



EMMA HART WILLARD 

All ,-iiiii'iii-an Echicjtor 
Diiitgbtt'r of' a Revoliit/oiLirv Cjptnin 



SUSAN CARRINGTON CLARKE 



Si'comi State Regent of Coitneetieiit 

A Deseendjiit of Esek Hopkins, First Coiunuiider-iii-ehief of tl.h 
Anwrican Navy, /77^ 



EMMA HART WILLARD CHAPTER SUSAN CARRINGTON CLARKE CHAPTER 

BERLIN MERIDEN 




^^<!:^'2'^.,^..^^^^>^^) 



(Bv courtesy of Miss Sarah II. \\'illaic\, Boston. 



EMMA HART WILLARD 



M 

m. 





X considering a title with whicli to designate the Berlin 
and Kensington Chapter, one name came almost con- 
currently into the minds of its charter members. It 
was the name of Emma Hart Willard. Indeed any- 
one familiar with the histor}' of Berlin, if asked to name the most 
distinguished woman who had originated within its limits, would 
name this one w^oman as Berlin's most celebrated daughter. 

She belonged to a family prominently and honorably identified 
with the history of Berlin from its foundation, — a family closely 
in touch with the Revolutionary period through the services of 
her father and her oldest brother, while she herself won an almost 
national reputation through the strong democratic sentiments 
which dominated her life — her teachings — her writings : hence the 
fitness of her name as the patronymic of a patriotic society was 
beyond question. 

Emma Hart Willard was of English blood and of good old 
Puritan stock, her father, Samuel Hart, being a descendant of 
Thomas Hooker, one of the founders of Connecticut. Samuel 
Hart's mother, Mary Hooker, was the daughter of John Hooker of 
Farmington, the granddaughter of Rev. Samuel Hooker (who 
was the first minister of Farmington), and the great-granddaughter 
of Thomas Hooker of Hartford. 

On his father's side, Samuel Hart was descended from Stephen 
Hart, one of the deacons of Thomas Hooker's church. Stephen 
Hart was the oldest of a colony of eight who emigrated from 
Hartford to Farmington. 

Some years after the settlement there, his grandson, John Hart, 
then a lad of eleven years, returning after a night's absence from 
home, found his father's house a heap of smouldering ruins, in the 
flames of which his father, mother, brothers and sisters had all 
been consumed. It was believed that the entire family had been 



4o6 THE I'ATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

murdered in their liome by the Indians, who then fired the 
house. 

This bov lived tu be the father of three sons, of wliom Samuel 
Hart, the grandfather of Mrs. WiHard, became one of the founders 
of Berlin.* 

Concerning the Revolutionary services of Capt. Samuel Hart, 
the father of Emma Hart Willard, the following statements are 
on record, f the first from the pen of his youngest daughter : 

" The military title of Captain Hart was of Revolutionary origin. 
A company was organized in the town of Berlin, of which he was 
captain, to go to the seacoast of Long Island, to prevent the dep- 
redations of the British, who had burnt Danbury and given much 
alarm to the inhabitants of other towns. In my childhood I have 
often heard my father describe the incidents of this campaign. At 
one time when the enemy was near New Haven, some of our 
troops were looking through a telescope. My father said to one 
near him, ' We had better leave this place, we may be exposed to 
their guns,' when there came from those guns a shot which killed 
tiie man my father thus addressed." 

Secondly is the following statement taken from a memoirj of 
Mrs. Willard: 

" Samuel Hart bore the title of Captain first in the militia, while 
yet a young man. He had resigned the office before the Revolu- 
tion began and was then, by law, free from military duty. That 
his neighbors placed unlimited confidence in his patriotism, cour- 
age and conduct, is shown bv the fact that when, during the Revo- 
lution, Tryon invaded Connecticut, all capable of bearing arms, 
but not bound by law, volunteered in Berlin to form a company to 
defend the State ; and among them was one who had been a 
colonel in the regular service, and a general in the militia (Gen. 
Selah Hart). The companv, which had the soubricpiet of the 

* Prof. Fowler's Memoir of Mrs. Willard. 

f The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record for July, 1884, an 
article written by Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps, then in her ninety-fust year. 
Mrs. Phelps was the youngest cluld of Capt. Samuel Hart, and aiUhor of Lin- 
coln's Botany and Phelps' Chemistiy ; she was Principal of the Patapsco Female 
Institute, Maryland, and scarcely less distinguished than her sister ISIrs. Willard. 

I Memoir of Mrs. Willard by Prof. Henry Fowler, Rochester Lniversity, N.V. 
Published in American Journal Education, March, 1859. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 407 

'Stag Company,' made choice of Capt. Samuel Hart as their com- 
mander for the dangerous service." 

Emma Hart WiHard was born in Berlin, February 23, 1787, the 
sixteenth child of Capt. Samuel Hart and the ninth child of I^ydia 
Hinsdale, his second wife, who was the mother of ten of Captain 
Hart's seventeen children. 

In childhood she was sent to the district school, and her father, 
a man of fine mind, snpplemented the instruction of the day by 
teaching his children in the evening. Thus at the age of fifteen 
Emma, his daughter, had acquired all the knowledge to be gained 
in the local schools and through her reading was familiar with 
much biography and history and with the best British poets and 
essayists. 

She attended for a time a school kept by a Yale graduate. Dr. 
Miner, who encouraged her to make all possible attainment, 
especiallv in English composition, the results of which are mani- 
fest in her publications and in her extensive correspondence, 
which in later years showed a health and vigor, a clearness of 
reasoning, and a conciseness of statement rarely found. 

She was enabled bv the help of her financially prosperous 
brothers to spend a part of two years at a school in Hartford, 
after which she was engaged in teaching first in Berlin, shortly 
after in Westfield, Mass., and later in Middlebury, Vt. Here at 
the age of twentv-two she married Dr. John Willard, a promi- 
nent politician and the Marshal of Vermont. This marriage 
withdrew her from active work as a teacher until 1814, when, ow- 
ing to financial reverses, she opened a school in Middlebury, 
which established her reputation as a teacher of rare ability. 
Appreciating the great need for a higher and better education for 
women, Mrs. Willard addressed the New York Assembly in behalf 
of woman's education, and asked for a state appropriation for the 
establishment of a seminary for women. Disappointed in obtain- 
ing this appropriation, she availed herself of the very sub- 
stantial offer made to her by the citizens and city corporation of 
Troy, and founded there the Troy Female Seminary, the first 
school of its kind in America and which proved the crowning 
achievement of her life. Heretofore the accomplishments had been 
considered all that was necessary in a girl's education, while in 



4o8 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Mrs. Willard's school in Troy the spirit of instruction was 
always a desire for thorough knowledge in the solid branches of 
study ^ — the need of better text-books being met by Mrs. Willard 
herself, who wrote treatises upon both geography and history. 

In 1825, General Lafayette visited America and was welcomed 
at the Troy Seminary — a song composed by Mrs. Willard and 
sung by the young ladies of the school being a part of the program 
on that memorable occasion. 

The poem is as follows : 

" And art thou, then, dear hero, come, 

And do our eyes beliold tlie raan, 
Who nerved his arm and bared his breast 

For us, ere yet our life began ? 
For us and for our native land, 

Thy youthful valor dared the war ; 
And now in winter of thy age, 

Thou'st come and left thy loved ones far. 

Then deep and dear tliy welcome be. 
Nor think thy daughters far from thee ; 
Columbia's daughters, lo ! we bend. 
And claim to call thee father, friend. 

But was't our country's rights alone 

Impelled Fayette to Freedom's van? 
No, 'twas the love of human kind — 

It was the sacred cause of man ; 
It was benevolence sublime. 

Like that which sways the eternal mind ! 
And, benefactor of the world, 

lie shed his blood for all mankind. 

Then deep and dear thy welcome be, 
Nor think thy tlaughters far from thee ; 
Daughters of human kind, we bend, 
And claim to call thee father, friend. 

This event was afterward referred to in a very graceful manner 
by the General in a letter to Mrs. Willard, and on her first visit to 
Paris in 1830, she was received with great courtesy by him and 
his daughters, presented at Court, escorted to the Chambers of 
Deputies and introduced to the most distinguished persons of the 
French Capital. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A^[ERICAN REVOLUTION. 409 

The succeeding years were devoted mostly to the conduct of the 
seminary. In 1844, when she was fifty-seven years of age, she made 
the following statement : " I have had under my care as nearly as 
I can calculate, five thousand pupils, of whom as many as five 
hundred have been teachers. I think more than half of these have 
been educated without present pay, their bills to be paid later 
from their earnings." It is estimated by others, on reliable 
information, that not more than two-thirds of these pupils ever 
paid the expenses of their education. Hence more than one hun- 
dred and fiftv voung women were gratuitously educated by Mrs. 
Willard, who thus became not only a well-known American 
educator, but a benefactor to womanhood everywhere. In 1854 
she practicallv withdrew from the management of Troy Seminary, 
leaving it to the care of her son, John H. Willard, and his wife, 
and after her return from a second visit to Europe she spent 
some years quietly at her home in Trov engaged in literary work. 

The stirring times preceding the Civil War again brought her 
before the public. She endeavored bv letters and memorials to 
influence prominent men to avoid the horrors of war and maintain 
peace between the North and South. When over seventy years of 
age she brought before Congress a petition, signed by over four 
thousand women, in the interest of peace, but it was of no avail. 
When war was actually begun, she recognized the necessity for 
energetic measures and was intensely in sympathy with the 
administration. 

Her published works are many. Her text-books for schools 
were for years universallv adopted. She wrote many odes for 
special occasions, but her ocean hymn, "• Rocked in the Cradle of 
the Deep," is her masterpiece. x\t the bicentennial celebration 
of the Farmington church in 1840 she delivered before the assem- 
bly an original poem entitled " Bride Stealing," which was a 
portrayal of a peculiar custom prevalent two hundred years ago, 
and which awakened much interest in Connecticut circles. 

The last entry in her diary Avas on the fifth of April, 1870. She 
died on the fifteenth of the same month, beloved and honored and 
leaving a record remarkable for its achievements in the cause of 
education. 

Mrs. Willard, born just at the close of the Revolutionary war,. 



4IO THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

reared in a lionie where the memories of the great struggle were 
sacredly cherished, tutored and inspired by parents and kindred 
who had fought and sacrificed for the great cause, the hardships, 
heroism and glory of the war were burned into her in her girl- 
hood, by constant recital. Endowed by nature with exceptional 
ability, which was later trained by fine scholarship, her life is an 
inspiration to all noble attainment and awakens the admiration of 
her countrywomen. 

She grew to womanhood not only an enthusiast in her love for 
the young Republic, Init while still a voung woman became one 
of her country's earliest historians. Her work was entitled "A 
History of the Republic of America." It Avas written in 1828 and 
was used for many years as a text-book in schools and was an 
acknowledged authority. 

It was dedicated to her mother, and that Mrs. Willard a])preci- 
ated the sacrifices made by her mother and other \yomen in the 
Revolutionary struggle is shown in the dedication, and is one of 
Jier claims to remembrance by the patriotic chapters of her state. 

" -Accept this offering of a daugiitei's love, 
Dear, only, widowed parent, on whose brow. 
Time-honored, have full eightv winters shed 
The crown of glorw 

MtUher, few are left 
Like tliee, who felt the tire of freedom's hoh* time 
Pervade and purif)' the patriot's breast. 
Thou wert within thy country's shattered bark, 
When trusting Heaven, she rode the raging seas 
And braved with dauntless, death-defying front 
The storm of war. With me retrace the scene. 
Then view her peace, her wealth, her liberty anil fame. 
And like the mariner who gains the port 
Almost unhoped for, from the dangerous waves, 
Thou canst rejoice ! — and thankful praise to God, 
The Great Deliverer, which perchance I sptuik — 
Thou, in thy pious heart, will deeply /tv/." 

M rs. Willard's life was one of activity to its very close. Her 
diary shows unabated interest in everything about her. She lived 
to see tlie Unitjn pass through the storm of the Civil War, the 
blot of slavery removed, and peace restored to the again " United " 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 411 

States — the fulfillment of a prayer-prophecv expressed in a patri- 
otic ode written by her in the early period of the civil war, when 
she was seventy-five years of age. 

God save America ! 

God grant our standard may, 

Where'er it wave, 
Follow the just and right, 
Foremost be in fight, 
And glorious still in might 

Our own to save. 

God keep America — 

Of nations great and free, 

Man's noldest friend ; 
Still with the ocean bound 
Our continent around, 
Each state in place be found, 

Till time shall end. 

God bless America — 
As in our father's da^•, 

So evermore ! 
God giant all discords cease, 
Kind brotherhoods increase. 
And truth and love breathe peace. 

From shore to shore. 

Her burial place was fitlv chosen. It is in Oakwood Cemetery, 
overlooking the vallevs of the Hudson and the Mohawk rivers. 
Below lies the city of Troy, which had been so long her home, and 
where fifty years before she founded an institution which has been 
an honor to our age and country. 

Alice Norton. 
Anne Amelia Ha)t. 

(MRS. SAMl'EL A. HAKT.) 

Clara E. Bidivell. 



The writers are much indebted to Dr. John Lord's " Life of Emma Willard," 
and to material furnished by a granddaughter. Miss Sarah H. Willard, and by 
Miss Emily T. Wilcox, a grandniece, formerly Principal of Troy Seminary. 




MISS SUSAN C. CLARKE. 
(Late State Regent Connecticut.) 



SUSAN CARRINGTON CLARKE 




USx\N CARRINGTON CLARKE was born in Rhode 
Island in 1831. She died October 20, 1895, in Atlanta, 
Georgia, while on a visit to the Exposition held there. 
She was a descendant of Esek Hopkins, first Admiral 
of the United States Navy, and at the outbreak of the Revolution 
probably the best known sea captain in the colonies. While the 
title of admiral was not given him by the formal act of the 
unfledged Republic of the United States, he was unanimously 
chosen December 22, 1775, as the head of the new navy and ranked 
with the general-in-chief of the land forces, and was addressed as 
admiral by the Marine Committee and by the officials of the 
Continental Congress. Esek Hopkins commanded the first naval 
squadron sent out by Congress. The line of descent is : 

Susan Carrington Clarke, daughter of John Hopkins Clarke 
and Susan Carrington Miles, his wife ; granddaughter of Dr. 
John Clarke and Amey Hopkins, his wife ; great granddaughter of 
Esek Hopkins and Desire Burroughs, his wife. On her grand- 
mother's side Miss Clarke was the great grand-niece of Stephen 
Hopkins of Rhode Island, who was one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

When she was still a little girl. Miss Clarke went to Middle- 
town, Connecticut, to live with her uncle and aunt, Mr. and 
Mrs. Samuel Hubbard. She was educated on the lines of old- 
fashioned intelligence. She read "Paradise Lost" with her aunt, 
making it a Sunday reading as especially appropriate for that 
day. Then Mrs. Hubbard began a course of Scott"s poems with 
her niece. Bvit when one Sunday the vouthful niece read a canto 
of " Marmion " she was called "naughty" by her aunt, such was 
the division between Milton and Scott in the estimate of the day. 
When Mr. Hubbard was appointed postmaster-general in the 
cabinet of President Fillmore, Miss Clarke, as a voung lady, went 



414 



Tin-: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



with Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard to Washington, and while there saw 
the best society of that time. She was acquainted with Daniel 
Webster and Charles Sumner and, also connecting link with the 
days of yore, she met Mrs. Dolly Madison, the widow of James 
Madison, our fourth President, and himself an actor in the Revo- 
lution of 1775. Miss Clarke may have taken the public-spirited 
turn, which was marked in her character, at this time. 




HOME OF SUSAN CAKKINOTON CI.ARKK, jMIDDLETOWN. 
(Second Stale Kcsenl Connecticut.) 

In 1S55 Mr. Ilidibard died, but Miss Chirke always kept up her 
interest in Washington, both politicallv and socially, and she was 
always a welcome guest to her friends there. During our War of 
the Rebellion in i<S6i she was intensely patriotic for the defend- 
ers of our insulted flag. Later she had a year of European travel 
with Dr. and Mrs. Cummings. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 415 

In 1SS5 Mrs. Hubbard died after several years of failing powers 
which made her a great cliarge. Through all the care and nurs- 
ing jNliss Clarke never spared herself, and she came very near 
sacrificing her liealth if not her life to her aunt. Not only was 
her care unfailing, her loyalty and affection were most beautiful, 
and to the last moment of her life slie quoted her aunt's 
theories and practices as among the things that were Avise and 
profitable. 

When she recovered in some degree from the effects of her 
aunt's illness and death. Miss Clarke found herself in possession 
of a large fortune and a beautiful home. How full the ten years 
following were of kind thoughts and deeds. She administered 
her great fortune with a man's large-heartedness in the matter of 
public objects and with a woman's sympathetic kindness in 
thoughtful private ways. She saw the good of each object and 
even the Salvation Army will miss her aid in the coming years. 

The ^liddletown chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution was the first formed in the state. Miss Clarke was a 
charter member and the first treasurer. Her gifts were many, and 
if there was a deficit or likely to be, she put her hand in her own 
pocket — she was a treasurer indeed, and often the chapter and the 
delegates and regents of other chapters were entertained at her 
own home. 

Two years later she Avas elected Regent of the James Wadsworth 
Chapter, but did not complete her term of office because she was 
elected State Regent of Connecticut in the February following. 
She was also a member of the vSociety of Colonial Dames and the 
vice-president of Connecticut of the Mary Washington Memorial 
Association. 

Among her interests and kindnesses was her friendship for the 
society of A. K. E. of the Weslevan University of Middletown. 
She gave them so much help in rebuilding their club house, which 
stands near her own home, that she was practically considered a 
member of the society. They gave her the society pin set in 
diamonds. In all but the name she was their patron saint. 

Miss Clarke died in Atlanta while on a visit to the Exposition 
given there in honor of the Centennial birthday of the state. 
Words of regret came from the people slie met there and assur- 



41 6 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

ances that, but for her, the colonial part of the exhibition would 
not have been what it was. 

The Meriden chapter, for which this is a memorial, the last one 
ori^anized by Miss Clarke, began its existence on the first of 
October, 1895. The members hesitated about a name. While 
still deliberating the matter, on the twenty-first of October came 
the news of the death of Miss Clarke. By the energetic action of 
a few members a meeting was called immediately and it was 
unanimously voted that the ncAV chapter should call itself the 
Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter, in honor of her who had been 
most friendly while the organization was forming. 

When the charter of the chapter came from Washington it was 
framed in pieces of the old historic Charter Oak of Hartford, 
given by the family of Miss Clarke, and below the picture of 
Martha Washington, which adorns every charter, is tiiat of Susan 
Carrington Clarke. 

Kate Footc Coe. 



For much of the matter in this sketch of the life of Miss Clarke the writer is 
indebted to the article written by Miss Gilmore of Middletown, Connecticut, and 
read by her at the first state conference held soon after the death of our beloved 
rejient. 



Cbaptcvi? 1Ralnc^ to Coininciuoratc Xocalitics 



Coast Towns near the Enemy's Lines 



NORWALK STAMFORD GREENWICH 



NORWALK CHAPTER STAMFORD CHAPTER 

NORWALK STAMFORD 



PUTNAM HILL CHAPTER 
GREENWICH 



27 












WHERE THE BATTLE OE THE ROCKS WAS FOUGHT. 
(Xorwalk, July 12, 1779.) 



NORWALK 




ORWALK was a simple, quiet village in the time of the 
Revolution. The toil of five generations of colonists 
had sufficiently cultivated its farms to admit of a com- 
fortable home life in substantial houses which made 
no pretensions to architectural elegance. Far from official cen- 
ters, we find no indications of a gay social life among its residents 
of a century ago, and to the outside world Norwalk was at most 
onlv a stopping place on the high road between Boston and New 
York. As such Washington knew it, spending a night there in 
passing on several occasions. He stopped once at Ozias Marvin's 
on the Westport road, and lunched on bread and milk. Both the 
table and bowl used in serving him are carefully cherished by the 
Marvin descendants. Continental troops also marched through 
Norwalk's quiet streets on their way to the seat of war, taking 
with them many Norwalk men.'^ 

The British troops were only fourteen miles away across the 
Sound on Long Island, and their marauding bands often disturbed 
tlie peace of Norwalk and of its outlying farms, keeping all south- 
western Connecticut constantly on the alert. Danger was indeed 
near enough to test the courage of the women of Norwalk and 
doubtless they were no less brave and self-sacrificing in their 
country's behalf than other Connecticut women during the dark 
days of the Revolution ; but history seems quite oblivious of their 
deeds, and not one of them is sufficiently distinguished for the 
local chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution to 
adopt her name. While the men from the patriot households of 
Norwalk were fighting on distant battlefields, their wives and 
mothers were doing double duty at home, directing the affairs of 
their farms as well as performing the manifold labors of a house- 

* According to Bancroft, Norwaffc sent more men to the war of the Revolu- 
tion, in proportion to its population, than any town in the thirteen colonies. 



420 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



wife of that dav. Besides, clothing had to be made fortlie soldiers, 
the wool had to be carded, the tlax hetcheled, and both spun and 
woven before the cloth was ready for the needlewoman, — the 
communitv being divided into districts and a certain number of 
garments being levied* by the town from each district. 

The only engagement with the British in Norwalk during the 




fitch's point, norwai.k. 

(Wliere Tryon landed, July ii, 1774.) 

Revolution occurred July 12, 1779, when Capt. Stephen Betts,f 
with a command of fiftv Continental troops and a few militia, 
resisted a superior force under General Tryon at the Rocks on 
France street, fighting for five hours Avith such success that the 
British retreated to their vessels at Fitch's Point. As they went 
they burned the town. All but six houses on their line of march 
were destroyed, together wuth the churches, barns, mills and all 
the vessels in tlie harbor. It was a day of terror in Norwalk, 

* Norwalk Town Records. 

fW. S. Bouton in liurd's Fairfield County, from original papers in State Librar3^ 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



421 



and the women and children took Might to retreats of safety, and 
cattle were hastily driven to distant meadows. The burning of 
Norwalk occurred in Jiilv, and tradition, preserved by the descend- 
ants of a Revolutionarv mother, relates that there were two after- 
math hay crops in Norwalk that season and many sheep had twin 
lambs the following year, which helped make good the losses.* 




FOUNTAIN S.^^TH S FARM. 
(Here Norualk's first prisoner, Fountain Smitli, was talien by tlie British. 



Mrs. Goold Hoyt, though not a loyalist, exercised sufficient 
diplomacy to save her house by a personal appeal to Tryon. 
Certain of her relations had been of special service to the British 
elsewhere, which doubtless influenced the General to clemency. f 

Mrs. William St. John was preparing some loaves for baking in 
the oven when the alarm was given that Tryon was coming. A 

* Related by Miss Juliette Betts, daughter of Captain Hezekiah Belts, a Revo- 
lutionary veteran, 
f Selleck's Norwalk. 



422 



Till-: PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



neighbor. Mr. Tliomas Belden's housekeeper, hurried in and asked 
Mrs. St. Jolin if she were going to stay in her house. " No," said 
Mrs. St. Jolin, " I shall get out of the Avay." " Well," said her neigh- 
bor, "I shall stay and ask General Tryon to save our house, for 
when he was governor, he once stayed there over night with his 
attendants and horses. I shall sav we are his friends." "Take 




THE (UJOLD IIOYT HOUSE, MAIN STREET, NORWALK. 

my dough if you are going to stay," said Mrs. St. John as she 
hurried off. The Belden house was saved, thanks to the house- 
keeper's plea, who went herself to Tryon on Grumman's Hill, 
which was "all red with the British" that day, and, in response to 
her plea, Tryon detailed some soldiers to save the house.* 

Mrs. Jacob Jennings was a lady of culture and a social leader, 
who took pains to teach botany to lier children — an unusual study 
for those days. Her liome was one of the most attractive in town, 
with well kept surroundings. It was one of the few houses which 
escaped burning, owing to its proximity to a Tory's barn.f 

* Hall's Xoiwalk. fSelleck's Norwalk. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AifERICAX REVOLUTION. 



423 



Another Norwalk resident, Mr. Thomas Benedict, was too ill to 
follow his family whom he had sent up to Belden's Hill for safety, 
and General Garth's men found him in bed. The English decided 
to leave their own wounded in Mr. Benedict's house, while the 
able-bodied troops marched on to join General Tryon in upper 
Norwalk after having refreshed themselves freely with wine and 




THE JACOB JENNINGS HOUSE, MAIN STREET, NORWALK. 



cider which they found set forth for the American defenders of 
Norwalk. Thus the Benedict house was saved.* This was the 
home of Hannah Benedict, afterwards Hannah Benedict Carter, 
for whom the New Canaan chapter is named. f 

* Hall's Norwalk. 

f The site of the Benedict home is now occupied b}' the residence of U. S. 
Congressman E. T- Hill, whose wife was the founder and first regent of the Nor- 
walk Chapter, D. A. R. The first meeting of the chapter was held in Mrs. Hill's 
drawing-room on Dec. 16, 1892. 



424 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Anotlier liousc which escaped burning was that of Capt. Jabez 
Gregory,* wlio was absent at the war, leaving his wife Mercy in 
their comfortable home on the bank of the river. Her dairy was 
a marvel of daintv cleanliness, cooled by a spring which was 
noted for miles around for its clear coldness. Mrs. Gregory long 
survived her husband, dying in 1839 at the age of one hundred 
vears. 




(IRUMMAN S HILL. 
(On which Tryoii iiiiule his liuaihiuarters while Xorwallv was burning.) 

One of the hospitable homes in Revolutionarv days, was that of 
Mrs. Josiah St. John,f whose home on Cannon street is still in 
existence and is a typical one of its time. Mrs. St. John was origi- 
nally a New Canaan girl, and her friends from that place when 
driving into Norwalk often stopped at her home for a cup of tea, 
even in the days when patriots used small teacups. Her father- 



*SclIeck's Norwalk. 



f Ibid. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



425 



in-law is said to have ie]5i"oved his daughter for using tea so freely 
during the war, but her hospitality was unchecked by this rebuke. 

Capt. Seth Seymour of Norwalk was one of the prisoners in the 
New York Sugar House, where he died and filled an unknown 
grave. Afterwards, when Washington passed through Norwalk 
with his troops, he ordered muffled drums and reversed muskets 
as they marched bv the Seymour house on West Avenue.^ Mrs. 
Seth Sevmour used to relate to her grandchildren that on this 
occasion the Norwalk women 
and children gathered ai'mfuls 
of the flower called prince's 
feather which grew abundantly 
in their gardens, and strewed 
these flowers in the road before 
Washington's horse, and ever 
afterwards mothers t a vi g h t 
their children to call the blos- 
som Washington's glory or 
America's glory instead of 
prince's feather. 

Norwalk, like all the towns 
along the Sound in southwest- 
ern Connecticut, was much 
troubled bv raiders from the 
British army who occupied 
Long Island. Such a band 
landed at Ring's End, Stam- 
ford, one day, and went 

tlirough Rowayton and West Norwalk on a foraging expedition. 
There were not enough men at home to resist them openly, but a 
number of farmers harassed the march of the raiders by firing 
from behind the roadside fences as the British returned to their 
boats. No loss of life is reported, but the soldiers were exasper- 
ated by the running fire, and, in upper Five Mile River they 
paused long enough to take revenge by firing a house. The 
family was not at home, but a woman from the neighboring house, 
who was drawing water at the well, saw the soldiers go into the 

"••'Related by Miss Amelia Seymour, Capt. Seymour's great-granddaughter. 




chair ix which trvon sat on 
grumman's hill. 

(Owned bv Rev. C. M. Selleck.) 



426 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



house, with a sabre rip open a straw bed and throw a shovelful of 
coals from the hearth into it. As the men came out she hurriedly 
went in and threw her bucket of water on the blaze, putting it out. 
The soldiers jostled her and jeered a little, but did not otherwise 

molest her. Then they 
made a second attempt 
to burn the house, tak- 
ing some of the dr;,' 
straw and placing it on 
the outside close to the 
sliingled wall against 
which stray American 
bullets were flying. The 
marauders thought she 
wcnild not dare go in 
face of the bullets, but 
this dauntless w^oman 
promptly drew another 
bucket of water and in 
the midst of the firing 
extinguished the second 
flame. As it was getting 
late the marauders made 
no further attempts to 
fi re t li e house, but 
marched away, passing 
our heroine's house on 
their way, but did not 
stop to do further mis- 
chief. Unfortunately 

OVEN IN THK JOS.AH ST. JUIIX ilCUSK. j.^^ ^^^^^^ -^ forgOtten.* 

Mrs. Sally Selleck Avas an ardent patriot, and, much to her 
grief, found that her husband in an over-thrifty spirit had become 
an agent for the British in securing live stock, to offset which she 
became a self-appointed sentinel in the American cause, and 
through her efforts many Tory plans were broken up in that 

■■■■Related by Mr. William R. Lockwood, to whom the storv was told by his 
grandmother who was living when the incident occurred. 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 427 

vicinity. When any of the Continental troops met Mrs. Selleck 
on her patriotic rounds, sometimes gun in hand, they were wont 
to greet her Avith " Hurrah for Sally ! "'* 

Mrs. Phineas Waterbury, of Rowayton, heard a band of British 
driving off her cattle one night, and raising her window, she 




THE JO.SIAH ST. JOHN HOUSE, CANNUX >iREi:i, .\ORWALK. 

called, " Turn out the guard ! Turn out the guard ! " in tones so 
loud that she was heard a mile away. One of the Tories called to 
her to be quiet or he would shoot her. "I am not afraid of you," 
said she, repeating her call. A ball whistled by her head, but the 

* Selleck's Norwalk. 



428 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Tories retreated in fear of the home guard who responded to her 
call. At another time her son, aged twenty, was shot while on 
guard dut}" and brought back to his home dead. Her husband 
was also captured and taken to New York as a prisoner.* 

Of the physical endurance of many of the women of Revolu- 
tionary times, Miss Sybil Whitehead is an instance. She was a 
schoolmistress in Norwalk and, in 1780, when ninety years of age, 
joined the Baptist church in Stamford. Every Saturday for 
several years she rode on horseback thirteen miles to the meeting 
in Stamford, returning Monday morning. Her last attendance 
was in May, 1789, when she walked nine miles from Old Well 
(South Norwalk) to Stamford, and returned Monday on foot. 
She was then ninety-nine years old.f 

The inventory of Fountain Smith's losses by Tryon's raid serves 
to show what a typical house of the period contained, excepting 
the barrel-making supplies, since Fountain Smith was a cooper by 
trade. This time-stained document was found by a member of the 
Norwalk Chapter in a secret compartment of an old chest, about 
a year ago. It was prepared as a claim for damages and presented 
to the Connecticut Assembly, who granted land in Ohio in the 
Connecticut Western Reserve to sufferers from tlie fire. 

Fountain Smith Loss B}^ Burning of Norwalk, July ye 11, 1779. 

One house 28 by 26 one Story and a half Wall finished Below, £ 65.. o. o 

One Shop 20 fecat by iS wide finished £. 5.. o. o 

Two Load of Good English hay two tun £. 4.. 10. o 

One Chist of Curld maple Draws /," 2.. o. 

Two Square Table one Wallnut and one White Wood £ i.. o. o 

Eight Black Chears part Worn £. 0..10..0 

One Brass Cittlc of 30 We £. 1..10. o 

One Larg pott Iron About 4 Gallons £. 0..12. o 

One Larg Iron Cittle About 2 Gallons £. o.. 6. o 

One pair of Styllards £. o.. 3. o 

One frying pan £. o.. 6. o 

One Small Loocking Glass /'. 0..10. o 

Two Good new Corn baskets £. o.. 4. o 

Two Good Duch Whealls at 15/pr peas £. 1..10. o 

One Reall £, o.. 4. o 

One Lcarge Wheall £. o.. 6..0 

Two bedsteads and 2 Cords at 10 £. i.. o. o 

One Large Duftail Chist with a Lock ;£■. 0..12. o 

Two putcr plates and 2 porringers £. 0.. 4. o 

One Dozen of Spoons £. o.. 2..0 

Two wooden Beads £. 0..12..0 

* Hall's Norwalk. 

I Recorded in the records of Stamford Baptist Church, quoted in Huntington's 
Stamford. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 429 

Two Good pillows filled With fethers £. o.. S..o 

One Iron Ladel £. o.. 3..0 

One Brass Skimmer £. o.. 4..0 

Six Butter Tubs at 3 pr peas £. 0..18..0 

One hundred Weight of fish £. o..ig. o 

Three Pork Fiarrell at £. o. .12. o 

One Barrel] of Tobacco About 60 WE £. 1..10. o 

Two Good Seder Tubs £. 0..10..0 

Twenty two fiax Seead Casks at 3/pr. p. £. 3.. 6. o 

Seventy five flower Casks at 1/6/2 £. 5.. 12. .6 

Six hundred White oak Staves and heading £. 1..10. o 

Eight sets of Barrells Trushoops £. r.. 4..0 

one Thousand Black oak Shaves £. i.. 0..0 

three sinter Stocks £ o.. g..o 
four hundred Black oak Staves for fax Seed Casks at 5/pr hundred £. i.. 0..0 

Two shaving horses £. o.. 6. o 

One hundred hoop poales £ o.. 4..0 

One Seder tub half barrell £ o.. 4..0 

One Churn at 4/pr £ o. . 4..0 

one half Dozen of round bottels £ o.. 2..0 

Three Athorn pals r Gallon Each £ o.. 3..0 

Six Wooden boles 2 Quarts Each £ 0.. 6. o 

One Bread Tray £ o. . 3..0 

One Larg Salt Alorter £. o.. 6..0 

One Weaned Calf £. i.. 0..0 

fifteen Geas at r/6 pr. p. £. i.. t..o 

Two Iron Candlesticks £. o.. 3..0 

one half Barrel of Soape £ o. 10. q 

fifteen pounds of Soap Graess £ ^- 1- o 

Six pounds of Tallov/ at 6 ^'0.. 3..0 

one hundred of Chestnut raAles £. 1..10. o 

Thirty Weight of Good Flower £ o.. 5. .5 

Three Large bee hives at 1/6 £. o.. 3. 5 

one half hogshead Tub £. o. . 3.. 5 

one half Barrell Cask of Vinergar Barrell and all £. 0..18. q 

one Box Iron £. o.. 3..0 

Two wooden Bottels of /3 ;^. o . 6. q 

Two out Side jackets half Worne Both Wooling £. 0..15..0 

Six pair of Good pillowbears at 3 pr pair £. 0..1S. q 

One Large Earthan platter £ o.. 1..5 

One Large Earthan pan £ o. . i..(j 

One Cradel White Wood £ 0..16..0 

One pair of hand Bellows £. o.. 3..0 
three Crows-Stocks for hogsheads And 2 barrell Crows Stocks at 16 £ o.. 7.. 5 

The descendants of Norwalk women of the Rev'ohition have, 
many of them, made brilliant records, having for generations been 
heard of in the world of affairs, social and political, judicial and 
military, and in widely separated places; it was our task not to 

write of them, but of their brave motliers of the Revolution. 

A/igt'Iinc Scoff. 



The illustrations in this sketch are from photographs made bv Mrs. Harry 
Hall Finch. 




nil. II A \ I M'OR']- Ilol M', AS II WAS lil.l'OKI-. Kh.M()\AI.. 
(Taken from an old print.) 

From the pillared ])ia/./.a Lafayette received the people who came to welcome him. 



STAMFORD 




HEN in 1640 the dissatisfaction in Wethersfield had 
become so deep rooted tiiat a state of fend* existed, 
by the wise connsel of the Rev. John Davenport of 
New Haven terms were arranged for a peaceful sepa- 
ration, and Stamford was founded as a liaven of rest for a people 
weary of tyranny in the land of their birth and of the petty 
annovances of their first homes in New England. They brought 
with them the original church records, therefore the Congrega- 
tional Church of Stamford maintained its distinctive rank as the 
" first born of Connecticut churches." f 

The church had no bell, the worshippers were called together 
by the sound of a drum beaten in the turret. The congregation 
were seated according to "dignitie" and military rank, the 
delicate duty of assigning seats being entrusted to a committee. 

But even in Stamford these early settlers did not lead lives of 
peace and plenty. The constant fear of the Indians, the dissentions 
among themselves, the strict laws laid down as rules of life were 
hard to endure. Even the Rev. Richard Denton, who had led the 
flock to Stamford, crossed the Sound three years later and sought 
a new home where people could vote who were not members of 
the church. 

Stamford, like Salem, found ncnv and then a "witch" within the 
gates, who was forced to stand trial and bear the punishment 

* " The reason for that condition may never be fully known." — Huntington. 

" Having no settled minister contentions and animosities arose and continued 
for years and were the means of scattering the inhabitants and forming new 
settlements and churches in other places." — Trunibiill. 

f "Taking with them the church records as well as its appointed minister, it 
is fairly claimed that this constituted a transfer of the church organization to the 
new tield, that organization dating from 1635 makes the Congregational Church 
of Stamford the "first born of Connecticut Churches." — Pictui-csqiie Stamford, 
page 28. 



432 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

meted out for such offenses. Harboring of Quakers was a 
specially o-rievous misdemeanor. One Goodwife Crabb of Green- 
wich, accused of this " sin " met the officers sent from Stamford to 
arrest lier witli force of language and a flow of words that 
probably made the grave men, Bell, Scofield, Waterbury and Slau- 
son, wish they could with dignity retreat. Goodman Crabb* said 
in defense of his spouse, "She was a well bred woman in England 
and a zealous professor from her childhood, but when she is sud- 
denly surprised she hath not power to restrain her passions." But 
this plea was not sufficient to acquit Goodwife Crabb ; a fine was 
imposed and the Crabbs were ordered to move, and to make 
public acknowledgment at Stamford. 

Shoes being high in price, the court ordered that "those shoe- 
makers be informed that if they do not give satisfaction for what 
they have done amiss in time past and reform for time to come 
thev will be dealt wnth at the next term of Court." 

With the end of the town's first fifty years and the dawning of 
the new century the condition of the colonists greatly improved. 
In spite of the hardships and privation of their lives they had 
steadily risen in civilization and refinement. Religion and indus- 
try were their chief concerns and the Bible was their book of 
books. 

In 1695 the Rev. John Davenport was called to the Congrega- 
tional Cliurch in Stamford, his " sallory " to be one hundred 
pounds a year and fire wood, the fire wood to be supplied as soon 
as the minister was settled in a family, and this he lost no time in 
doing. 

The soldier spirit was a necessary part of the pioneer character 
and Jolin Underbill was the Miles Standish of the Stamford 
colony. Whittier says of his coming to Cocheco town :f 

" He said to the elders — ' Lo, I come, 
As the way seemed opened to seek a home, 
Somewhat the Lord hath wrought by mv liands 
In the Narragansett and Netherlands, 
And if ye have work for a Christian man, 
I'll tarry and serve a'oii as Ijest I can.' " 

* Picturesque Stamford. 

f Poem entitled "John L'lukrhill." 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 433 

'Tarry with iis,' the settlers cried, 
'Thou man of God, as our ruler and guide.' 
And Captain Underhill bowed his head, 
' The will of the Lord be done,' he said. 
And the morrow beheld him sitting down 
In the ruler's seat in Cocheco town." 

While not in the ruler's seat in Stamford town, John Underliill 
was there and looked up to and honored as early as 1643. 

All males over sixteen were taught the use of arms and the 
general training days were seasons of excitement and interest. 
These general training days did good work. When the French 
and Indian war began and Connecticut was called on for troops 
there were soldiers ready and well drilled. "Among the men of 
Stamford who came out of these campaigns trained soldiers w^ere 
David Waterbury, Charles Webb, Jonathan Hoyt, Joseph Hovt, 
arid Col. David Wooster, who afterwards bore a general's commis- 
sion, as did Waterbury." * 

In 1775 there were sixty-seven towns in Connecticut and in 
population vStainford was the sixteenth. In that year Stamford 
was represeiited in the Senate by Abraham Davenport and in the 
State Assembly, by David Waterbury and Charles Webb. From 
the first alarm the patriot ranks were filled with men whose 
family names are today on our voting list, Waterbury, Webb, 
Weed, Hoyt, Scofield, Bell, and other men staunch and true whose 
memory we honor today. 

The patriotic feeling that prevailed in Stamford is evident from 
a letter written by General Lee to Washington dated at Stamford 
in Januaiy, 1775, and published in Irving's Life of Washington. 
Lee writes : " I find the people of this prin'ince more alive and 
zealous than my most sanguine anticipations. I believe I might 
have collected 2,000 volunteers. I take only four companies with 
me and Waterbury's Regiment." 

Stamford was not the scene of bloodshed. The dramatic inci- 
dents which are found in the history of Greenwich, Ridgefield, 
Danbuiy and Norwalk have no counterpart in Stamford, which 
Avas, however, of greater importance than the neighboring towns, 

* Huntington's History of Stamford, page 200; Gillespie's Picturesque Stam- 
ford, page 70. 
28 



434 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



and therefore was better prepared for defense. It was garrisoned 
and usually had a large military force within it. It was also a depot 
for military and medical supplies and hospitals had been estab- 
lished there. Its " fort," which at times had a garrison of eight 
hundred men, was a part of a general system for the defense of 
the Sound towns. According to tradition, this fort was planned 
and laid out by Israel Putnam. Little of it remains today, but 




Sri'E OF FORT NONSENSE, STAMFORD. 



enough can be seen to locate three of the bastions. It is about 
three and a half miles from the town, and as war gave place to 
peace and as one generation succeeded another, the w^onder grew 
why a fort should have been located on such a remote site. Its 
name, if it had any other than "the fort," was forgotten and it 
became known as Fort Nonsense. 

In 1777 the British general, Tryon, advanced within two miles 
of Stamford, but was met bv a superior force under General 
Lee on Palmer's Hill, which held him in check and drove him 
back. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 435 

Stamford was not the scene of an actual engag-enient with the 
enemy, and did not suffer destruction by fire, but there are 
preserved in its history several accounts of deeds of daring and 
sacrifice. Among them is the brilliant achievement of Major Ben- 
jamin Tallmadge. The enemy at Lloyd's Neck, L. I., had ei'ected 
a fort and manned it with a force of five hundred men, and an 
organized band of marauders under its protection had long 
molested the towns along the Connecticut coast. Major Tall- 
madge determined to put an end to the freebooters. He embarked 
with one hundred and thirty men from Shippan Point on Septem- 
ber 5, 1779, and crossed the Sound, attacked the enemy, captured 
the whole party and landed them at Stamford before morning 
without losing a man himself. 

A similar expedition was carried out by Capt. Ebenezer Jones, 
who was in charge of the " Boat Service,"* which was a number 
of whaleboats with specially organized crews, and which cooperated 
with Major Davenport, commander of the town guard, in defense 
of the port. A frigate and a sloop belonging to the British were 
anchored in Oyster Bay. Captain Jones, taking advantage of a 
foggy morning, rowed close to the sloop, angrily denounced the 
carelessness of the watch in allowing rebels to row in the bay all 
night and threatened to report the watch to the admiral. While 
the British officer tried to mollify the supposed old Tory, Captain 
Jones's patriot crew climbed on board and at a given signal took 
possession of the vessel, slipped her cable and towed her over to 
Stamford — a valuable prize with her twenty guns, ammunition and 
provisions. 

On one of their marauding expeditions the British and Tories 
chased Benjamin Weed to his home, but Benjamin Weed being 
very fleet of foot outdistanced them and, while they were searching 
the lower portion of the house, secreted himself in the attic behind 
the great chimney. Believing that her brother was likely to be 
discovered and recalling that a single shot was the signal agreed 
upon to summon the neighbors, Prudence Weed, nineteen years 
old, seized a gun, ran to the yard and resting the musket on the 
old gate post, fired the signal for aid. The invaders, realizing 

* Picturesque Stamford, page 64, also Huntington's History of Stamford, page 
217. 



43^ 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



tliiit they were foiled and by a young girl, hurried from the house 
and after breaking her gun into fragments on the post, fled. 
Descendants of the Weeds are living on the same land today 
and the old house in which Prudence Weed was born is still 
standing but remodelled. The gate posts are no more but the old 
step bv the gate near which Prudence probably stood when she 
fired the sicfnal shot is a treasured relic. 




HOUSE (remodelled) IN WHICH PRCDENX'E WEED WAS BORN. 



A most exciting incident took place in the eastern part of the 
town in what is now Darien (then called Middlesex Society and a 
part of Stamford), which resulted in the capture of Dr. Moses 
Mather and the men of his congregation who were gathered for 
the afternoon service on Sunday, July 22, 1781. During the 
preceding night the British raiders had crossed from Lloyd's 
Neck in seven boats and, secreting themselves in a swamp, they 
awaited the arrival of the congregation. When the service was 
duly begun, they suddenlv surrounded the house and only four or 
five of the most agile of the congregation escaped ; the venerable 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



437 



pastor, \vh(j liad been forty years a minister, was subjected to much 
indignity and compelled to march in front of the line of prisoners 
to the shore, where they took boats for the Tory stronghold across 
the Sound. Twentv-fcjur were released on parole, the remaining 
twenty-six, including Dr. Mather, were sent to the Provost Prison 
in New York, where their sufferings were similar to those endured 
by the inmates of the Jersey Prison Ship. Nineteen of the 




GRAVE OF PRUDENCE WEED. 
(The stone is within railing, in the center of the picture, and at the base of the slender trees.) 



number survived the cruel treatment and were released the follow- 
ing December, among them Dr. Mather. 

Other men whose names are best known today in connection 
with the Revolution are Gen. David Waterburv and Col. Charles 
Webb. Colonel Webb was born in Stamford in 1724. He early 
became prominent in civil and military affairs and was elected 
twenty-three times to the Legislature. When war was declared 
he was from the first looked to as a leader and served with 
distinctif)n. As an officer he was prompt and efficient and a strict 



438 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

disciplinarian. In 1775 Charles Webb was commissioned colonel 
of the Seventh Continental Regiment, Nathan Hale being 
captain of the Third Company in the same regiment. 

David Waterbury was born in Stamford in 1722. He had 
served in the French and Indian war. That he was ready at the 
opening of the Revolution to serve the patriot cause is shown by 
the offices he filled and honored. As early as January, 1775, 
Major-General Lee wrote to David Waterbury to call his men 



THE HOME OF DR. WEBB, SON OF COLONEL WEBB, WHO IS BELIEVED TO H.WE 

LIVED HERE. 



together and to lose no time, and in March Waterbury left Stam- 
ford with his regiment. From this time on his life was one of 
great activity and responsibility in New York, at King's Bridge, 
Crown Point, and at Ticonderoga, whence he was ordered to 
Long Island, an order which later was countermanded. 

The following letters taken from Huntington's History show 
the esteem in which Waterbury was held by Washington and 
'l"ruml)ull : 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



439 



Lebanon, April 29, 1776. 

S/r : — David Waterbury, Jan., of Stamford, Esquire, Col. of a 
regiment from this colony in the northern department the last 
year, and at the taking of St. Johns and Montreal and lately in 
the service at New York Avith Major-General Lee, at all times 
behaved with bravery and honor. When you have a vacancy in 
the army answerable to his rank, I do heartily commend him to 
your kind notice and regard. 

I am with great esteem and regard, sir, your obd. humble 
servant, 

JoNA. Trumbull. 

To his excellencv Gen. Washington. 




INTERIOR UK THE DR. WEBB HOUSE. 



New York, May 13, 1776. 
S/r: — Governor Trumbull has been pleased to mention you to 
me as a proper person to succeed to the command of a regiment 
lately General Arnold's. If you incline to engage in the service 
again, I shall be obliged to you for signifying as much, in order 
that I may lay the matter before Congress for their approval. 
I am, sir, with great respect, your most obd. servant, 

Geo. Washington. 
To Colonel David Waterburv, of Stamford. 



440 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



In his reply to this proposal of General Washington, Colonel 
Waterbury stated that he had not hitherto received the promotion 
which was his due, and while he asked no further commission, he 
pledged himself as ready to volunteer his services at anv moment 
when they might be needed. 

In June, 1776, he was commissioned brigadier-general. In Julv 
he shared the command with General Wadsworth and hurried to 




P.VRTV DKl'^S AND SLU'l'liR OF .MOLLY W.VTEKliL'RV. 
{A daughter of General Waterbury.) 

Lake George, and later General Schuyler wrote of him : " I know 
him to be a good man as well as a good officer." On the four- 
teenth of September he was taken prisoner and Sir Guy Carleton 
wrote to Lord Germain in great exultation, " We have taken Mr. 
Waterbury." He was soon exchanged, however, and continued 
in command. At the close of the war he returned to his farm on 
the west side of Stamford liarhor and died in June, 1801. He left 
a son and one daughter, the latter young and unmarried. Her 
party dress of brocade and the tiny high-heeled slippers in which 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



441 



she perhaps danced the stately minuet are in tlie possession of one 
of Stamford's chapter members, wlio is a descendant of General 
Waterburv. 

After the siege of Boston, while the army was encamped on 
Manhattan Island, Washington's Life Guard was organized. It 
first consisted of one hundred and eighty men and afterwards was 
increased to two hundred and fifty. The motto of the Life Guard 




GRAVES OF GEN. DAVID WATERBURY AND OF HIS DAUGHTER MOLLY. 



was "Conquer or Die." The uniform was a blue coat with white 
facings, white waistcoat and breeches, black half gaiters and 
cocked hat with blue and white plume. The members were 
chosen on account of their excellencies, moral, mental and physi- 
cal. It was a mark of distinction to belong to the Life Guard. 
A son of Stamford, Usal Knapp, was thus honored, and was the 
last survivor of that famous body of men. He served in the 
Continental Army from the beginning of the war and entered the 
Life Guard at Morristown in 1780. He died in 1857 at the great 



442 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



age of ninety-seven. His body lay in state in Washington's 
headquarters in Newburg, N. Y., for three days. He was buried 
at the foot of the flagstaff near the mansion and over his grave is 
a handsome mausoleum of freestone. 




rsAL KN.A.PP. 
(I>ast survivor (if Wasliington's Life Guard.) 



The old house is still standing where Abraham Davenport 
lived, whose place in our town history is unique. We can picture 
him, aged seven, called by the sound of the ch-um to the square 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



443 



pew to listen to liis father's words from the pulpit ; we can 
follow him through boyhood to an upright, respected manhood. 
To the business of the town he gave trustworthy guidance, to its 
political organization he brought courage and force, in social 




f 



ABRAHAM DAVENPORT. 

life he furnished an example of a scholar and a gentleman. He 
was to Trumbull what Trumbull was to Washington — a trusted 
adviser. When the dark day* in May, 1780, caused panic in the 

* Ma}^ ig, 1780. Described in a poem by Whittier entitled "Abraham 
Davenport ;" also in Gillespie's Picturesque Stamford, page 70. 
Huntington's Histor}' of Stamford, page 385. 
Connecticut Historical Collection, by J. W. Barber, page 403. 



444 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Senate chamber, Abraham Davenport arose and said, " If it is not 
the Day of Judgment there is no reason to adjourn ; if it is I 
prefer to be found doing my duty : bring in candles." 

" And there he stands in memory to this day — 
Erect, self-poised, a rugged face half seen, 
Against the background of unnatural dark, 
A witness to the ages as they pass, 
That simple duty has no place for fear." 




WEBBS TAVERN, LONG KNOWN AS THE WASHINGTON HOUSE. 
(It sheltered many famous men in its day. Torn down in 1868.) 



From tlie piazza of the Davenport House,* Lafayette, on his 
second visit to America, received the people who came to greet 
the friend of Washington. Through the kindness of members of 
the Stamford chapter and other friends, the Stamford charter is 
framed as follows : the body of the frame was taken from a beam 
from the Davenport house, while the corners are of wood which was 
once a part of Webb's tavern, a building well known in its day 

* See frontispiece, p. 430. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 445 

and ill front of which the vStamford patriots burned the Bohea 
tea ; the ornaments of the frame are the rungs of a chair once 
the property of David Waterbury. When the cliarter was unveiled 
the flag was lifted by two young people, descendants of families 
whose names are associated with the wood in the frame. 

Stamford Chapter is not named for a heroine. Yet there were 
heroines here in those days thougii their deeds were not chronicled 
and their names were not recorded. The following poem recalls 
an incident which took place a few miles from Stamford, and 
pictures one of Stamford's heroines, the story of whose heroism 
survived — not dependent on chronicles and records. 

GRANDMOTHER'S GRANDMOTHER.* 

Grandmother's grandmother, long ago, 

When the colonies rose up against the king, 

And a comrade might turn and become a foe. 
Knew not wliat tidings each hour might bring. 

Grandmother's grandpa, a Major then. 

The county militia bravely led ; 
Member of Congress, a man among men, 

The king had offered a price for his head. 

His homestead stood on old Pound Ridge, 

A landmark for all the country round ; 
A sheltering roof for his patriot friends, 

Who here a home and a helper found. 

'Twas a fearful night, that first of July, 

The storm lieat fierce, none ex]3ected the foe. 

But a whisper came swift for the Major to fly. 
For the Redcoats were seen in the valley below. 



They had reached the place in a moment more. 
Had vaulted the fence and crossed the yard. 

But were stopped and faced at the very door 

By grandmother's grandmother, standing guard. 



* Hannah Smith Lockwood, wife of Major Ebenezer Lockwood of Pound 
Ridge, N. Y. 



446 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

She stood her ground and blocked the way, 
But the men were eager, the prize was near, 

The}^ could not have meant a woman to slay, 
But one drew his sword with an ugly sneer. 

And e'er she could turn he dealt a blow, 

And grandmother, senseless, lay at his feet ; 

They all rushed in for the prize, but lo ! 
Grandmother's Major was safe in retreat. 

Grandmother's grandmother did not die, 
She lived to welcome her hero again. 

But the homestead from which he was forced to fly. 
Was burned to the ground by Tarleton's men. 

Grandmother's grandmother lived to see, 

Her homestead restored on the dear old hill. 

Her husband honored, her land made free. 
And we, her children, revere her still.* 



Alary C. Hart. 

(MRS. N. R. hart). 



* Poem written by Charlotte Elizabeth Betts, a member of the Stamford 
chapter. 

The material for the above sketch was largely taken, some of it directly 
copied, from Gillespie's Picturesque Stamford and from Huntington's History 
of Stamford. Use has also been made of Sparks' Letters of Washington, Hol- 
lister's History of Connecticut, Irving's Life of Washington, and Barber's 
Connecticut Historical Collections. Valuable assistance has also been given 
by Mrs. John Davenport, Mrs. O. G. Fessenden, Miss Susie Miller, and Miss 
Josephine Scofield. 



PUTNAM HILL 




REENWICH was the scene of many remarkable events 
during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, some 
of which are recorded on the pages of history, others 
are preserved only through family tradition ; but both 
show that the town had its baptism of fire before independence 
was finally secured. 

The township of Greenwich was purchased of the Indians in 
1640, by Robert Peaks and Daniel Patrick, for the colony of New 
Haven. But the purchasers violated their contract with New 
Haven and, together with the few later settlers, placed them- 
selves under the government of New Amsterdam. The Indians 
were hostile to the Dutch and thus early in its history Green- 
wich was attacked by the Indians and was the scene of bloody 
conflicts. Once in 1646 fifteen hundred Indian warriors were 
encamped about the settlement and several hundred inhabitants 
were massacred, many women and children being tomahawked 
or burned. 

Greenwich had a prominent place in Revolutionary history. 
Among the memorable events were tlae raids of the British under 
General Tryon, the first of which took place April 22, 1777. 
Tryon, with two thousand soldiers, landed at Compo Point, Fair- 
field, marched to Danbury, burned eighteen houses and destroyed 
eighty thousand dollars' worth of Continental stores there col- 
lected, but was driven back to his ships by the citizen soldiers, 
among whom were many from Greenwich. 

Another disastrous raid occurred two years later, when, on July 
S and 9, 1779, General Tryon marched from New York with a 
large force and destroyed much property belonging to the patriots 
of Greenwich. The town of Fairfield, including its court house, 
several churches and school houses and over two hundred barns 
and stores, were burned. Gen. Israel Putnam at this time was 



448 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Stationed with his forces at Reading (or Redding), a position 
whence he could aid the garrison at West Point and also protect 
the towns on Long Island Sound. 

The most destructive of Tryon's invasions took place February 
26, 1779. With three regiments Tryon marched from Kings 
Bridge, a few miles north of New York, for Horseneck, Green- 
wich, to destroy the salt works situated near the present station of 
Cos Cob. Horseneck (now called Putnam's Hill) was one of the 




THE PUTNAM COTTAGE, GREENWICH. 



outposts of General Putnam, who visited Horseneck almost every 
day to watch the movements of the enemy. The main body of 
Putnam's troops occupied a position of safetv on the Stamford 
road, while General Putnam with a small force was stationed 
near the Hill for the defense of the town. 

When the Britisli ai)peared on February 26, 1779, Putnam with a 
single piece of artillery was prej^aring to defend the high ground of 
Greenwich on the summit of which now stands the Second Con- 
gregational clnirch. A detachment of British coming suddenly in 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



449 



sight, he quickly ordered his company to retire and started liini- 
self for Stamford for reinforcements. Being hotly pursued by 
the British, General Putnam " plunged down the precipice on a 
full trot," dashed across the road and reached the thicket at 
the foot of the hill, one of the many shots fired at him passing 
through his hat. When this event occurred an Episcopal church 
stood on the hill, and to accommodate its members, a series 
of about a hundred stone steps had been placed, leading directly 




^~H^<^c*^ f^ /^t^rLt-TTt. 



up the precipice to the cluirch. It was down these ste]3s that 
Putnam took his mad plunge, and the British dragoons, a swords- 
length behind him when the precipice was reached, dared not 
follow. Thus occurred General Putnam's memorable "leap into 
history." Before the enemv reached the valley by going around 
the hill, Putnam was well out of their way, but he was compelled, 
by the superior numbers of the British, to fall back and join his 
forces on the Stamford rcjad. 
29 



45° 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



General Tryon while in Greenwich made his headquarters in 
the house now occupied by Oliver Mead and his soldiers took 
entire possession of the town. They entered Joshua Smith's house, 
whose sole occui)ant at the time was his mother-in-law. She was 
struck down and killed by a British soldier, and the raiders then 
burned the house to the Q-round. Durins; this raid the British 







PUTNAM RIDING DOWN THE HILL. 
(From :ui old print.) 

captured thirtv-eight American jiriscjiiers, among whom was 
Sergeant John Redington,* who was marched to New York City 
and imprisoned in the old Rhinelander sugar-house. From 
his testimony of the barbarities inflicted upon the unfortu- 
nate soldiers confined in that vile enclosure, some idea may be 
had of the terrible sufferings of the Revolutionary patriots. 
The following is a l)rief description by Charles Burr Todd : 



* lohn Redington was the grandfather of the writer of this sketch. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AINIERICAN REVOLUTION. 



451 



"The old sugar-house was a five-story structure of stone, with 
small, deep windows rising tier upon tier like port holes in a 
"hulk," and its apai"tments were dismal in the extreme. When 
occupied by prisoners it was guarded by English or Hessian 
soldiers lest the unhappy captives might seek to escape from the 
wretched quarters to which the misfortunes of war had doomed 
them. They were wedged in to form a solid mass of humanity 
(no seats provided) and their miserable beds of straw were alive 
with vermin. An eye witness paints them in the stifling heat of 
summer crowding the narrow apertures of windows, each striving 
to gain a breath of fresh air from the outside world. Food of the 




THE RHINELANDER SUGAR-HOUSE. 



worst quality, and that in meagre rations, was dealt out to them, 
while deadly weapons caused those who were charitably inclined 
to turn away, when they sought to carry relief to the starving 
hosts within. Death was welcomed as a happy release from the 
sufferings of captivity, and the remains of the dead were daily 
thrown out to be buried without funeral rites of any kind." 

Sergeant Redington finally regained his liberty through an 
exchange of prisoners, and upon meeting Capt. James Dana of 
Waterbury, who later was his commanding officer, the latter, 



452 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

noticing his changed appearance, said to liim with streaming eyes, 
^' John, you look like — Time in the primer ! "* 

Greenwich's most influential man in the Revolution was Gen. 
John Mead, who had been chosen nine times to represent Green- 
wich in the General Assembly. King George III. sent him a 
commission as captain but John Mead declined to serve in the 
King's army. The commission was afterwards found by his politi- 
cal enemies when the invaders plundered his house and taken 
possession of with the intention of using it to prove a charge of 
treason against him, but their opportunity never came. 

When John Mead first entered the American army he was com- 
missioned a major and for his ability and brilliant service was 
rapidly promoted. Three years before the war closed he held the 
rank of brigadier-general. f He was commander of the American 
forces in the vicinity of Greenwich and was in New York City 
when it was captured by the British, having command of the last 
troops to leave the citv. 

General Mead's house was situated west of Toll Gate Hill at 
Greenwich, just beyond the American line, and because of its 
f)wner's active patriotism and high official position his home was 
frequently ])lundered. General Mead's familv was so harassed, 
and kept in such constant fear, that he was finally obliged to 
remove them to Norwalk until hostilities ceased. 

In General Mead's family Avere twin daughters, Anna and Mary 
— young girls just developing into womanhood. Sevei'al instances 
are recorded which exhibit their good sense and remarkable 
bravery. One morning when General Mead and his friends were 
breakfasting at his house, warning was given of the approach of 
some Tory Light Horse. General Mead and his guests had barely 
time to escape by a rear door when a horseman rode directly into 
the dining room and conmianded Anna to tell where her father 

■"This statemrnt is made bv John Redington's daughter, Mrs. Laura A. 
Ferguson, a real daughter of the Cleveland Chapter, and now living (]May, 1901) 
in Cleveland, Ohio. 

f In May, 1775, he was in the 9th regiment of Conn. Militia as Lieut-Colonel ; 
in May, 1777, as Colonel; in May, 1781, three years before the war closed, he 
held his commission as Brigadier-General of the 4th Connecticut Brigade. — Year 
Book 1896 of ."Sons of Revolution," N. Y. Citv. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AINIERICAN REVOLUTION. 453 

was hidden. She refused to tell and the Tory angrily raised his 
sword, vowing lie would kill her. Anna dodged the blow and the 
sword struck the door casing, making a deep cut in the wood. In 
the hope of over-awing her he tipped over the table with its china, 
and shattered a large mirror with a blow from his sword, but 
finding that this did not affect the courageous girl the Tory rode 
away, muttering revengeful curses.* 

General Mead's oldest son, John, was also in the American 
army. One time when he was at home on parole, Mary, his 
sister (who was washing near a spring some distance from the 
house) saw her brother suddenly run from the house and take 
shelter in a thicket nearby. A moment later she Avas surrounded 
by a band of British and Tory Light Horse. The leader com- 
manded her to tell them where her brother was concealed, at the 
same time drawing his sword and placing the point at her breast. 
Under this trying ordeal the young heroine remained calm and 
self-possessed and quietly explained that she had come from the 
house earlv in the morning and all by herself had been occupied 
ever since simply with her washing. Mary's apparent ignorance 
of her brother's whereabouts and her serenity of manner under 
such trving circumstances were so convincing that the soldiers 
rode off, wdiile her brother lay hidden within sound of her voice, 
and the young man was saved from imprisonment and perhaps 
from death by the self-possession of his sister. 

Another heroine of Greenwich at this period was Abigail Howe 
Mead, whose home was at Indian Field, near the Sound, where 
she lived with her palsied husband, Deliverance Mead, and 
their family of little ones. Many of the inhabitants of Greenwich 
had been forced to leave the town and seek refuge in the interior 
of the state, on account of the raids of the British and the persecu- 
tions of the Tories. Circumstances made it necessary for the 
Mead family to remain at home. Three times Abigail Mead's 
house was sacked by the British and Toiy soldiers, and all provi- 
sions and valuables carried off. Her courage, however, never 
faltered and during these trying times her husband, the palsied 

* Family tradition of the Misses Louise and Susan Mead, members of Putnam 
Hill Chapter. 



454 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



*lJ«:jilli.'f.f7.l 



its SdtOiERS AKO 



!|(j|p6 to LEAD WHERE NOf:ii 
""■' g FO€S DAR£0 TO FOtsJll 



STONE ERECTED BY THE PfTNAM HILL CHAPTER, GREENWICH, 
JUNE i6tH, 1900. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 455 

patriot, even contributed his remaining cattle to the cavise, driving 
them liimself to the American camp when provisions were scarce, 
in his lielpless condition exposing himself to captvire by the 
British and Tory troops and possibly to death. Moreover, this 
contribution was made when their own supplies were low and the 
outlook for the future very dark, the heroic Abigail Howe Mead 
comforting her children thus: "Never mind, children, the soldiers 
must be fed if tliev would fight, and we still have the black 
mussels ! " In fact the shell fish on the shore was their main 
dependence for food, but Abigail's words may have had a double 
meaning, for under a great heap of mussel shells in the door yard 
was a small excavation where the stores and valuables of the fam- 
ily were concealed. 

No pewter platters were handed down as heirlooms in Abigail 
Mead's family, for they were melted and moulded into bullets and 
were used to help win American independence. 

Huldah, a little daughter of Deliverance and Abigail Mead, had 
several experiences which must have been extremely trying 
for a little girl. Earlv one evening a commotion was heard 
without, and a band of Torv marauders entered the house and 
began to carry off all movables. Breaking into the room where 
the children were sleeping, they rolled Huldah off her great 
feather bed and carried the bed away, leaving the little girl on tlie 
floor. 

Mrs. Mead's parents lived five or six miles distant in the coun- 
try, and as she was riding home one day on the same horse with 
her father, Isaac Howe, her infant in her arms, they became sud- 
denly aware that they were followed in the distance by a band of 
mounted Tories. That the Tories were in pursuit of her father 
she was confident and earnestly begged him to let her dismount, 
that he might ride away and escape. Mr. Howe at first refused, 
but her entreaties at last prevailed. Mrs. Mead slipped to the 
ground and as her father stooped to hand her the baby one of the 
Tory bullets whistling near him grazed his shoulder, but he rode 
rapidly away and escaped. The Tories in hot pursuit of Mr. Howe 
passed the brave woman without notice. 

The incidents related in this sketch are representative of the 
usual role played bv Greenwich people in the war for American 



4S6 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

independence. Greenwich, being on the boundary line between 
New York and Connecticut, was the nearest of Connecticut towns 
to the enemy's camp and was considered lawful prey by both the 
Tories and British soldiers. For seven years a kind of border 
warfare Avas almost constantly kept up— from the time the 
British took possession of New York, September 15, 1776, until 
November 25, 1783, when the city was evacuated by the British. 

But the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution, in its choice of title, honors especially the memory of Gen. 
Israel Putnam, the hero of Putnam Hill. On June 16, 1900, the 
chapter marked the site of Putnam's leap with a large granite 
boulder, placing on it a bronze tablet bearing a fitting inscription 
to General Israel Putnam. Among the speakers on this occasion 
were Governor Lounsbury, of Connecticut, General Miles, 
(reneral O. O. Howard, Colonel Pope, and Compte de Lafayette. 
Compte de Lafayette is a great-grandson of General de Lafayette 
and raised the new flag on the pole which the chapter had recently 
had phiced on the Hill. A lineal descendant of General Putnam 
unveiled the tablet. 

The chapter also desires to collect and preserve anything in 
history or tradition relating to the historic town of Greenwich 
which can be hereafter of interest to its citizens. It is especially 
ambitious to own as a chapter house Putnam cottage,* where 
history says General Putnam was stationed wlien he was surprised 
by the enemy and made his escape down the hill then called 
Horseneck, but whicli has ever since been kncnvn as Putnam Hill. 

Hch'u RcJi)n^toii Adams. 

(,.MKS. H. H. ADAMS.) 

* See page 44S. 



The authorities consulted in compiling this sketch were 
Ilurd's History of Fairfield County. 
James Grant Wilson's History of the United States. 
Mead's History of Greenwich. 
Trumbull's History of Connecticut. 
Hinman's Historical Collections. 
History of Westchester Count)\ 



Cbaptcri^ 1l♦lalnc^ to (loinincmoratc Xocalitice 



Interior Towns on the Line of March from New England to the 
Hudson River 



SOUTH MANCHESTER TORRINGTON 
WINS TED WASHINGTON 



ORFORD PARISH CHAPTER TORRINGTON CHAPTER GREEN WOODS CHAPTER 

SOUTH MANCHESTER TORRINGTON WINSTED 

JUDEA CHAPTER 
WASHINGTON 




WOODBRIDGE TAVERN. 
(Kept by Deodatus Woodbridge, Orford Parish, now Manchester.) 



ORFORD PARISH 




HEN the South Manchester chapter was organized in 
1895, its charter members dedicated the chapter to the 
memory of old Orford Parish. Orford was the name 
of the present town of Manchester from the time of 
the Revolution until 1823, and thus the shibboleth of the South 
Manchester chapter honors the bravery of every Orford man who 
Avent away to battle for his country, and commemorates the 
patient heroism of every Orford woman under the yoke which the 
war placed upon her at home. 

When Thomas Hooker and his sturdy band founded a home 
at Hartford in the year 1636, their purchase from the Indians 
included a three-mile tract on the east side of the Great River, 
called the Three-Mile Lots. About forty years later a contract 
was made with Joshua, the sachem of the Western Niantic Indians, 
to purchase an additional five miles eastward. The old chief 
dying before the conveyance was made, the "valuable considera- 
tion " was paid to his heir, and recorded in due form at Hartford, 
January 21, 1683. This land was called the Five Miles, and 
extended north to Windsor, south to Glastonbury, and east to the 
Commons — the present Bolton line. In 1731 most of the Five 
Mile purchase was laid out into tiers, and the original proprietors 
received lots the sizes of which were in proportion to their rates. 
For years the settlers in that " parsell of land commonly called 
the Five Miles" attended church in the Three-Mile Lots, but as 
their numbers increased, and as they lived " some five and some 
eleven Miles from the Meeting House"* — a long distance when 
saddle and pillion were the mode of travel — a strong need was 
felt for a more convenient place of worship, and finally, in 1763, 

*From a document marked "Judment assembly five mils," and dated 2d 
Thursda}- of May, 1763. 



460 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

the General Assembly allowed them to have preaching seven 
months in the year in a dwelling-house near the thirty-rod high- 
way, at the present center of Manchester. For several years 
the settlers at Five Miles voted the necessary money — usually 
about forty-five pounds — to pay society charges, " S^/ Sum to 
be paid in Wheat Rye Indian Corn and oats at the market 
price & to be Delivered where the Comt. Shall order but not 
beyond Hartford ferry." In 1767 they again appealed to the Gen- 
eral Assembly, desiring to be incorporated into an "entire Ecclesi- 
astical Society," in order to enjoy in a greater measure "ye usual 
& ordinary means of grace ye greatest gift of God to lapsed 
men."* This memorial is signed by sixty-nine voters, most of the 
names written in the farmer's clumsy hand, but among the num- 
ber is only one man Avho put " His Mark." The course of law 
was slow then as now, but the committeemen, by keeping their 
petition before the Assembly each year, obtained their desire at 
the session held in May and June, 1772 ; and then began the 
records of Orford Parish. It remained, however, a part of the 
town of Hartford until 1783, when it was set off with East Hart- 
ford as a separate township on the east side of the river, and "Five 
Miles " was thereafter known as "Parish of Orford, in the town 
of East Hartford," until Manchester days began in 1823. 

Three volumes of records of the parish have been preserved, and 
these, with the tax lists, memorials to the General Assemblv, and 
a few private documents, make up the sum of its history as told 
by contemporaries. One volume of the records gives the cove- 
nant of the Church ; the names of its founders, sixteen men and 
two women ; the admonition, discipline and excommunication of 
delinquent members ; the lists of births, baptisms and marriages ; 
and lastly, the "Bill of Mortality." A second volume contains 
the votes passed at meetings which were held to provide for the 
support of the church, and includes for a few years the school 
and highway votes. The third volume is the school record book 
from the year 1796.! The highway record book is unfortunately 
missing. 

*Fioni a document marked " Five Miles Society Votes." 

f Most of these old records have been copied bv the historian of Orford 
Parish Chapter. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



461 



It has been said that the name Orford was formed by using the 
last syllable of the two names Winds-^-r and Hart-/on/, but nothing 
authentic is known concerning its origin. Of sixtv towns repre- 
sented in the Connecticut General Assembly in 17S8, fully two- 
thirds borrow their names from persons or places in the Mother 
Country. Perhaps Orford was named for Sir Robert Walpole, 
Earl of Orford. His foreign policy was always favorable to the 




RUINS OF THE PITKIN GLASS WORKS, MANCHESTER. 
(Built at Orford Parish 1783.) 



colonies, and it was not ixntil his retirement from office that the 
severity of English rule in America culminated in the Stamp Act, 
a measure which Walpole had always condemned. 

With the desire for a cliurch grew the necessity for better edu- 
cational advantages. In tlie spring of 1772, a new school-house 
was "Sett up" near the house used as the temporary church, and 
during six weeks of the first summer seventeen pupils attended the 



462 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



" Master School." Later in the year the parish was divided into 
six regular school districts, in each of which school was kept 
from six weeks to three months every year. 

Surveyors worked some time marking "staddles" (small forest 
trees) and setting stakes before the exact boundaries of the parish 
were settled, and the people were " duly satisfied " to build a 
meeting-house near the temporary church on the thirty-rod 




GLASS BOTTLES. 
(Relics of Orford Parish Imlustries.) 

highway, and "over the Stake that was Set by the Comm'®. that 
was Sent by the assembly in may 1773." The frame of the new 
meeting-house had a "bigness" of fifty-four feet in length by 
forty feet in width, and the work was hardly begun on it before 
many of the most active men in the parish had enlisted in the 
trainbands to march away from home for the defense of the 
country. Under the " Burden of a Long and Tedious War with 
the Great Cost arising therefrom,"* the little society was sorely 
tried for several years to collect even the pastor's salary of 



*From Orford Parish Records. 



DAUGHTERS OF TPIE A]MERICAX REVOLUTION. 463 

one hundred pounds, the same to be paid in grain, "or other 
Artickles Agreable or in money that Shall Purchase the Like 
Artickles," — and many years passed before the new meeting- 
house, the First Church of Christ in Orford, Avas completed.* 

The streams which flowed through the Five Mile tract afforded 
excellent water power, which was utilized even in the earliest 
days to run saw-mills and grist-mills. Many of the original set- 
tlers were skilled artisans, and as soon as they had cleared the 
land, started manufacturing enterprises of various kinds on a 
small scale — powder, wool, cotton, glass and paper being among 
the articles manufactured. The account of the battle of Lexing- 
ton which appeared in the Hartford Couraiit was printed on paper 
made in an Orford mill. Shortly after the war began this mill 
came into the possession of Hannah Watson and Sarah Ledvard, 
and when it was burned in 1778 they obtained permission from 
the General Assembly to " set up " a lottery to raise money to 
rebuild the mill, as "said paper mill is of public necessity and 
utility. "f 

Benjamin Lyman of Orford was the first in Connecticut to 
manufacture iron plows and hvibs ; and Timothy Cheney and his 
brother Benjamin made tall, eight-day clocks of sterling work- 
manship, a handsome one with brass works costing about twelve 
pounds. The picturesque stone ruins of the Pitkin glass-works, 
some of the quaint old bottles made there, and several Cheney 
clocks which still keep good time, are treasured memorials of old 
Orford industries. 

The land in Orford was not as easily tilled as the fertile alluvial 
of East Hartford near the river, but the undulating hills, with 
their well-timbered tracts, gave each farmer both open fields for 
crops and excellent uplands for pasturage and wood lots. 
Slaves were owned in the parish, eighty pounds being paid in 1758 
by one of the farmers for "one certain negro Man named Zacheus, 
one negro Woman named Diana & a negro boy, to have & to hold 

*On the twentieth day of November, 1794, the society voted to accept the 
meeting-house as finished, " provided the Pew Doors are well hung and the 
Read Paint covered on the front Side of S^ house." 

f From Pub. Records of Conn., Vol. I, page 503. 



464 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

said Negro Slaves for Ever,"* but most of the work was done by 
the settlers themselves ; and the best the most thrifty could win 
from soil, or mill, or shop was a simple, well-to-do prosperity. 

In the year 1773 the list of voters numbered ninety-four, and on 
the back of the old document which contains their names is 
written : 

" No. of Houses in Orford, . . 112 

on the East Side, 56 

on the West 56" 

Each of these houses was taxed according to the number of 
"smokes" or fire-places, — a parlor-smoke rating higher than a 
kitchen-smoke. 



DATK ON FIRE-PLACE OF A HOUSE IN ORFORD PARISH. 

The old meeting-house, the center and heart of Orford society, 
is no longer standing, but there are a dozen or more old houses 
which have survived the wear of time, and these are of good pro- 
portion, though entirely without ornamentation. The farmers 
built remote from each other, selecting their house lots to suit 
their own convenience, and Orford had no line of handsome 
dwellings like the street in East Hartford. 

One of the earliest settlers in the Five-Mile purchase was 
Thomas Olcott, and he opened a tavern there in 17 11. From that 
time for a hundred years some member of the Olcott famil)' paid 
a tax as a "taverner" at the west end of the tract. The inn of 
revolutionary days was burned, and John Olccjtt built a new house 
of entertainment which is still standing, though the tap-room is 
no more. Just south of the John Olcott tavern stands a small 
house with a gambrel-roof, which is over one hundred and twenty- 
five years old. It was the homestead of Charles Bunce, and when 
first occupied had but two lights of glass. There are three old 

"■■•'From original bill of sale. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



465 



houses on. which the date of their erection is given. The liouse 
now owned by Mrs. L. B. Watkins has this date carved upon the 
stone fire-facings: "January, A.D. 1764." Here lived early in the 
century just closed " Aunt Anne Case," a maiden ladv, beloved 
by the whole parish. Tlie George Griswold house, now owned 
by the Misses Eldridge, has the date 1770 carved upon the stone 
beside the doorway; and the chimney of the Alexander McKee 
house bears the date 1803. A picturesque house, called Minister's 
Tavern, was the home of Ireanus Brown, and its hospitable roof 




IREANUS BROWN HOMESTEAD. 



sheltered many young divines who came to preach in Orford to 
families of the Baptist faith. As far as can be ascertained, the 
Timothy Cheney homestead, now called Orford Farm House, 
on the country road east of the meeting-house site, is the oldest 
house now standing. This was built in 1757. Later the owner 
moved into a smaller house in his South Lots where he had 
a saw-mill and a grist-mill. This house, which is usually called 
the Cheney Homestead, is built into a side-hill, with a cellar on 
the same floor with the kitchen. The parlor, above stairs, has a 
30 



466 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



separate entrance with a porch on the hill top, a convenient 
arrangement for best-room company. 

An old ledger containing the accounts of Timothy Cheney from 
I7S7 to 1795 gives a pleasing idea of generous provision in the 
parish. His home was comfortably furnished, and that house- 
keeping tasks were made easy is proved by such entries as the 
following: "Sarah How came to live at my House; \Yd Mary 




TIMOTHY CFUCM-V ilU.MESTEAD, NOW" CAI.l.KD 



)UI-()KIi lAKM Hi)r>I'. 



Evens came to work at my House ; Gate a woman of color came 
to work for me ; Pd. Elizabeth Briant for weaving coverlid and 
Bedstick ; Pd. for weaving 34 yds. check linen, whitning 19 yds. 
of Cloth & Spinning 2 run of 12 not yarn." Such items as: 
"Silk bunnit for Wife; a Silk Crape gown; pr. of stais ; pr. 
womens shoe buckles ; hat pin ; silk handkerchief; String of gold 
Beeds ; one open top Cariage ; "—suggest a proper outfit for the 
house-wife for Sunday church-going. Rum was bought by the 
barrel, but tea-parties Avere not of frequent occurrence in this 
family. In 1 763, half-a-pound of tea was purchased, and again, 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A^IERICAN REVOLUTION. 



467 



in 1767, quarter-of-a-pound of tea was entered in tlie book. After 
that time none at all was used. 

From tlie distribution of the estate of Deacon Robert McKee in 
1798, it appears that the Widow's Third was carried out to the 
letter of the law in Orford. Mabel McKee came into possession 
not only of her third of the "Home Lott " and other lands, but 




CHENEY HOMESl'EAl). 



had for her improvement during life "the West front Room and 
the West Bed room one half of the Kitchen Chamber one third 
part of the cellar at the North End with liberty to Wash Bake and 
Brew in the Kitchen With liberty to use the Well and one third 
part of the Door Yard and eight Rods of Ground for a Garden at 
the West end of the house extending South to the highway the 
Southwest part of the Barn viz from the floor to the west end half 
way across the Barn from North to South with liberty to thresh 
her ofrain &:c. on the floor." 



468 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 469 

No mention is made of whipping-post and stocks in Orford, 
but the Church acted as a sterner check to wrong-doing than any 
gaol. Church-members were admonished for tavern-liaunting, 
disorderly behavior in the house of God, false remarks, imprudent 
speech, theft, and use of ardent spirits. If no confession was 
made, the unlucky victim was excommunicated in the following 
form : " We do withdraw our Watch and fellowship from him and 
in the Name of the great head of the chh. do give him back to 
the World we do in the language of the scripture Deliver him 
unto Satan for the distruction of the flesh that his sperit may be 
saved in the Day of the Life. We do no longer consider him as a 
member of the chh. but is unto us as a heathen man and publican." 

In 1791 was started the first Public Library Company in East 
Hartford — " said library to forever remain in the Parish of 
Orford " — but the proprietors, as they were called, paid their 
annual dues only a few years, for in 1807 the books, one hundred 
and one volumes, mostlv religious and instructive, were sold cnit 
at auction. 

When the Revolution began, the men of Orford responded 
promptly to beat of drum, and formed a company in the Lexing- 
ton Alarm Regiment from Hartford. This is the roll — 

Timothy Cheney, Capt. Josiali Olcott, fun'' Theodore Keene}' 

Ricliard Pitkin, Lieut. Alexandar Keeney, Jnn'' Robert McKec 

Ozias Bissell, " Abiathar Evans _ Solomon Oilman, Jun'' 

Simon Gaines, Serjeant Ozias Bidwell Josiah Loomis 

Elisha Buckland, " Tames Bellows Samuel Bryant 

Joseph McKec, " David Buckland Jedediah Darling, Jun' 

Samuel Evans, Tun'' Ephraim Webster Timothy Bryant 

Mathew Cadwell Toseph Stedman _ David Goodrich 
Nathaniel Dewey 

Several of these men saw actual service in other companies, but 
no one among them distinguished himself pre-eminently in the 
field. 

The society meeting held in Orford on the third Thursday of 
January, 1777, voted " to abate the Society Rates that was made 
on the Heads of the Soljers that were in the Publick Servis," but 
unfortunately their names were not given, evidently because they 
were so well known to all in the parish. It is difficult to identify 
the men who died in service, for their names were not passed from 
generation to generatic^i as were those of the soldiers who escaped 



47° 



THE I'ATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



the hazards of war and returned home to tell of their adventures 
in camp and field. 

In the three cemeteries of Manchester are the graves of twenty- 
three soldiers of the Revolution, and these are commemorated by 
revolutionary markers, placed there b}' the Orford Parish chapter. 
All of these patriots were married, and so manv of them had 
established their homes before Avar days began that it is appropri- 
ate here to record the names of the wives with the list of soldiers. 



Soldiers. 
Captain Ozias Bissell. 
■' Timoth)' Cliene}'. 
Richard Pitkin. 
Lieutenant Simon Gains. 

" Nathaniel Olcott. 

Sergeant Elisha Buckland. 
" Elihu Gccr. 

" Joseph McKee. 

Ensign Russell Bissell. 
Private Ebenezer Bryant. 
" George Buckland. 
'■ Moses E\'ans. 
" Joshua Flint. 
" White Grisvvold.* 
Josiah HoUister. 
Ashel Keeney. 
Richard Keeney. 
" Allen Marsh. 

Robert McKee. 
" Andrus Millard 
" Nehemiah Risle)'. 
" Asluia S3^monds. 
William Wilson. 



IVivcs. 
Mabel Bissell. 
Mary Cheney. 
Dorothy Pitkin. 
Sarah Gains. 
Irena Olcott. 
' Elizabeth Buckland. 
Eleanor Geer. 
Ruth McKee. 
Eunice Bissell. 
Lois Bryant. 
Elizabeth Buckland. 

Evans. 

Sarah Flint. 
Elizabeth Griswold. 
Mary Hollister. 
Sarah Keeney. 
Mabel Keener. 
Mabel Marsh' 
Dorothy McKee. 
Mabel Millard. 
Martha Risley. 
Ruth Symonds. 
Lovina Wilson. 



In the east cemetery is buried a negro named John Jacklin, and 
his grave-stone records with pride his service : " Waiter to 
General Washington." 

Capt. Ozias Bissell, the greatest fighter from Orford, served 
five years and eight months in the Revolution, and was repeatedly 
wounded and taken prisoner. Timothy Cheney of the Lexington 
Alarm comjjanv received a commission as captain of the ninth 
compan\- in tlie nineteenth regiment, Connecticut Militia; and 
Richard Pitkin, Nathaniel Olcott and Sinn in (iains were officers 



* White Griswold died in service, and ujxin the stone marking the grave of 
his wife is this additional inscription : " P. S. Mr. White Griswold died in 
Philadelphia, Deer., A. D. 1777, in the 50th year of his age." 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REN'OLUTIOX. 



471 



under him. The roster of tlie men is missing. Tliis company 
went to New York in August, 1776, witii the troops under Brig.- 
Gen. Roger Wolcott. Captain Chenev Avas recalled by (Governor 
Trumbull to resume the manufacture of ijowder-sieves, of which 




GRAVE-STONE IN EAST CEMETERY, MANCHEblER. 



the new powder-mills of the state were in pressing need. He 
did not re-enlist, and Richard Pitivin took his place as captain. 
Richard Pitkin, Jr., a boy too young to enlist, followed his father 
when on a campaign, and drove an ammunition wagon. Josiah 
Hollister was in the corps of artificers at Valley Forge, and had 
the honor of making a cabinet or wardrobe for Martha Washing- 
ton to use in camp. 



472 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



White Griswold and his son Asa were in the northern depart- 
ment in 1776, and some extracts from a letter written by White 
Griswold will give an idea of the hardships endured by the 
patriots during the summer : 




DOROTHY PITKIN. 
(Landlady (if Pitkin Tavern, Orford Paiisli, now Manchester.) 

"Fort George, loth August, 1776. Although at a great 
distance from you yet I have an opportunity which I gladly 
embrace to let you know something of mv circumstances since I 
came from home, but where and how to begin I am at a loss for 
the time is short in wliicli I have to write. I have been into 
Canada as far as the 3 Ivivcrs 90 miles above Ouebeck which is 
278 miles from this place and on the March we underwent an un- 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:\IERrCAN REVOLUTION. 



47. 



known deal, both by fatigue and want of provisions also by the 
small pox so that we have undergone almost everything but death. 
But thanks be to God I and my son are in comfortable circum- 
stances at present. Our business for some days past has been 
making coffins. I counted the graves Saturclav night the loth of 
August and there were 130 graves and siuidry have two bodies in 




Aii5S»lii.-' 




DOROTHY PITKIX CHAIR. 

them, and tis not more than 30 days since the first w^as buried 
there. Although deatli is so frecjuent tis minded among the 
greater part of the soldiers no more than among a herd of cattle 
which makes it the most doleful to behold." The next year 
White Griswold was taken prisoner at Brandywine, and died in 
captivity. 

Moses Evans, senior and junior, entered the army together; the 
father lost his life early in the conflict. Moses Evans, the 
younger, served from Bunker Hill to tlie end of the war, and 



474 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

escaped serious injiirv, though he lost an eye in battle. He was 
Avith Putnam's little band when the general made his daring 
escape on horseback ; once on a winter campaign his bare and 
bleeding feet left a red track upon the snow, and his rations were 




DEODATCS \V()iilil!Kn)<;E. 
(Landlonl of Wooilbridge Tavern at Orford Parish, now Manchester.) 

half-a-pint of rice a day ; he had small pox at New London, and 
his mother, hearing of his illness, went for him with a horse and 
cart and brought him home to nurse him. All these hardships 
did not change his cheerful disposition, and in his old age when 
lie was entirely blind, his home was tlie center of revolutionary 
story-telling. He would sing all tiie old songs like "Yankee 
Doodle" and "Don't let them fool you, girls." One of his favorite 
war sono^s beean thus : 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:MERICAN REVOLUTION. 

" We'll take our knapsacks on our backs. 
With a piece o' pork and pumpkin-pie, 
And gang down to New York 
To make the red-coats tiy." 



475 




ESTHER WELLS WOODBRIDGE. 
(Landlady of Woodbridg-e Tavern at Orford Parish, now Mancliester.) 



The women of Orford were too far away from the scene of 
actual warfare to show lieroism in camp or field, but the fortitude 
with which they took up the double duty of household and farm 
was born of patriotism as unflinching as that shown by the men. 

At the old Olcott tavern, situated at the west end of the parish, 
many a weary soldier partook of a substantial meal of Mistress 
Olcott's own cooking, and went his way rejoicing. The tavern at 
the eastern end of Orford was kept by Capt. Richard Pitkin and 



476 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

his wife Dorotliv.* The following receipted bill shows that 
Dorothy Pitkin had a bvisy day early in the War : " Hartford 
Jen'ry 14th 1776. Then Receiv'd of Richard Pitkin twenty one 
meals of Victuals for my Soldiers on their march to Cambridge 
Camp: John Pennoyer Lt." On the other side is written : "To 
21 Meals Victuals att 8d = L O. 13 s. 6 d." 

When Rochambeau's army crossed Connecticut in the summer 
of 1 781, a detachment of the troops passed through Orford. x\s 
soon as word of the approach of the " French Army " was 
received at the Pitkin tayern, Dorothy and her daughters at once 
began preparations to feed as many of the hungry soldiers as 
possible. First they started the bread-making; then filled 
great kettles, with beef, pork and vegetables, and hung them 
to boil. After the cooking was well under way, they improvised 
tables outside the inn, and when the soldiers arrived they found a 
savory meal spread for them, willing hands to serve them, and 
smiling faces to cheer them. It was a day always remembered 
with pride by the Pitkin family, for the gratitude of the soldiers 
was sincere and heartfelt. 

Toward the close of the war, Deodatus Woodbridge and his 
wife Esther opened a public house near the Pitkin Inn, where 
were entertained Governor Trumbull and other distinguished 
men as they passed through the state. When Washington was 
President he made a journey to Boston in 1789, and upon his 
return through Connecticut he rested at Woodbridge tavern. In 
his diary under the day Monday, November 9, 1789, he writes: 
"We passed through Mansfield (which is a very hilly country and 
the township in which they make the greatest qty. of silk 
of any in the state) and breakfasted at one Bingham's in Coven- 
try. Stopped at Woodbridges in Et. Hartford, where the level 
land is entered upon, and from whence, through East Hartford, 
the country is pleasant and the land in places very good ; in 
others sandy and weak." This must have been the time when 
Washington " stopped at Woodbridges " that the little daughter 

*They were married in East Hartford, and a special service was held tliere to 
offer prayers for the welfare of the young couple about to depart to the wilder- 
ness ! Their tavern-home in the wilderness, (i. e. the Five Miles) is no longer 
standing. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



477 



of the house, Electa Woodbridge, presented him with a glass of 
water, an honor of which she was justly proud all her life. 

This tavern* is still standing on the turnpike at Manchester 
Green, but has lost some of its old-time character ; and the gaily 






•4 .^ 



ELECTA WOODBRIDGE CHENEY. 

painted sign-a lion with a twisted tail-which used to swing 
before the door, has long since disappeared. The hc:n,se sheltered 
all c^ood patriots who passed that way, and the Daughters of 
the American Revolution of Orford Parish have preserved a 
piece of the time-eaten oak from the tavern in the frame of their 
charter. 



A/ia- Barrett Cheney. 



* See frontispiece, p. 458- 







A 



A 



KKVOl.UTIONARY CLOCK. 

(A trophy of the New York caniiiaign. The property of 

Captain Shubael Griswokl, Torrington, now 

in possession of his (iescendants.) 



TORRINGTON 




X 1 741 Torrington was incoi-porated as a to\Yn. It 
was indeed a town of small beginnings. In 1737 one 
man from Durham, Avith liis family, made the place 
his home ; another from the same A-icinity soon 
followed and in four years fourteen families, from the neighbor- 
ing towns of Windsor and Durham, had settled there. Over this 
little flock the Rev. Nathaniel Roberts was ordained as minister 
in the summer of 1741. 

As it was a frontier settlement and exposed to depredations 
from the Canadians and Indians, a fortification was erected not 
far from the center, no trace of which can be seen to-day. 

During the Revolution it was far from the scene of battle and 
as it was not on the regular line of march between Connecticut 
and the Hudson River there is little local connection between 
Torrington and the war. In the year 1781, however, the French 
allies marched through the town on their way to join Washington's 
army at New York, and encamped on the hills of Torringford, the 
eastern section (jf the town. No record of any incident con- 
nected with this encampment remains and little information has 
been discovered about the passage of the French army through 
Torringford. The turnpike over which they marched is now 
disused and has become part of the farm pastures adjoining. 
Their camp was near the old church, no traces of which remain, 
a house having been erected nearly on the site of the original 
church. 

Captain Shubael Grisvvold, ancestor of a member* of the 
Torrington chapter, served in the French and Indian War and 
kept a careful journal of his campaigns. To obtain a legible copy 
of Captain Griswold's journal Avas difficult. But on the first page 



*Miss Isabelle Wallace Griswold. 



480 



THK PATRON 



SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 




DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 48 1 

of this interesting relic of our Colonial Wars, as pictured in the 
accompanying illustration, can be read — 

"May ye i** 1758 I inlisted myself into his Majeste's servis." 

On the opposite page can be deciphered the first entry of his 
journal which records the march of Litchfield county men to 
Ticonderoga, and their arrival in time for the famous battle there 
between Abercrombie and Montcalm. It reads as follows : 

Marched from Torrington on the 20"' day of June 1758. 
March from Litchfield " '' 22'"'. 

The 23"' day marched from Canaan. 

* % * * 

On Saturday July the first day marched ... to Stillwater and 
tented there. 

July the second day marched from Stillwater to Saratoga and 
tented there. 

Monday July the 3"' day marched from Saratoga to Fort 
Edward & tented. 

* * * % 

Tuesday July the 4'" day marched from Fort Edward to Lake 
George and tented there. 

Wednesday July the 5'" Day imbarked at fort . 

July the 6^'^ day about forenoon tented at ticonderoga the batel 
began about two in the afternoon . . . took about one hundred 
and fifty pr[isoners.] Some killed. On our side we lost ... a 
few men, one Lord Howe was killed. 

Friday July the 7 day marched a litel ways and was called back 
again and lay by till nite, and marched again and got lost and 
lodged in the woods. 

Saturday July the 8 day marched to the fort Ticonderoga about 
nine or ten of the clock in the forenoon then begun the batel and 
lasted til the sun set, and then retreated. 

The above is simplv a captain's record of the march of the Litch- 
field county men to the scene of war. Of the forces on the English 
side, later historians say, " It was the largest army which had ever 
yet marched through the forests of America. On July 5"', 1758, 
nine thousand provincial troops and six thousand British regulars 
embarked in a thousand boats on the shore of Lake George for 
the strong French Fort at Ticonderoga held by Montcalm with 
about thirty-six hundred men." An assault was made by (xcneral 
Abercrombie on July 8, 1758, on Fort Ticonderoga. The attack 



4S2 



THE TATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



«as conducted with unsL.rpassed intrcpiditv b„t was as braveh- 
eused by Montcalm. The English lost nearly two thousand 
kUied and w.„„„ded. The popular young English genetall ovd 
Howe, was killed (mentioned in the diarv luider date Jul M 
whose early death was mourned both in England and the colo lie ' 










/:-^/.vy - ■ 
,A-/>...:...^„y^ 

KACSIM.LK copy OK CAPTAIN SHUHAEL GR.SWOLD's MAKCHINO KOLI 
DATED MARCH 4, 1777. TOKRINCrPON. 

,,,"';;:;"f "''■ K-^-volutionary W„,. Captain Griswold wrote little 

o. h,. Belting Orders" as he called it, is, however, in tlie 
pes ession of his great-gianddaugluer, who kindiv allowed 
a photo to be taken of the same for this sketch. 'The resi- 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



483 



deuces of the men in Captain Griswold's Company are given 
opposite their names on the ''Marching Roll." Those from 
Torrington are first and are as follows : John Burr, Setli Coe, 
Charles Roberts, Ambrose Fyler, Jonathan Miller, Asaph Atwater, 
John Birge, Isaac Filley, Timotiiy Loomis, Ebenezer Bissell, 
Return Bissell, Daniel Winchell, Frederick Bigelow, Cotton 
















./ //,., 



.-/ - 







^'^'^^yij^/j i -.y^ ' 



FACSIMILE COPIES REIJUISITIONS, ORDER AND SIGNATURES OF CAPTAIN SHUBAEL 
GRISWOLD, TORRINGTON. 

Mather, Benjamin Frisbic, Thomas Skinner, Nathaniel Barber, 
Thomas Kelsey, Thomas Matthews, Stephen Rossiter, Elislia 
Kelsey. 

In addition there are still preserved a few requisitions on the 
sutler. Two are dated at Crown Point during the year 1775 and 
are as follows : 

Crown Point, July 26, 1775. Mr. Andruss, Sutler, Sir: Please 
to let Edward Fuller have of your Store three Shillings Lawfull 
Money, by order of Shubael Griswold Capt. 



4^4 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Crown Point August ye 4 1775. To Mr. Bemus, Sutler. Please 
to Let Edward Fuller have of Your Store Six Shillings Lawfull 
Money. 

Shubael Griswold, Capt. 

To Capt. Shubael Griswold, Sir. This is yr order to pay unto 
Elisha Frisbie of Torrington two pounds money out of what is 
Due to me for mv wages last year's Campaign it being for \'alue 
Reed. 

Dated farmington the 13th Day of March A. D. 1776. 
James Cowles. David Havdon. 

In the Capt. .Shubael Griswold homestead stands an ancient 
brass clock, which still keeps good time. The works of this clock 
were taken from the house of a Tory in New York by a patriot 
soldier, who carried them off in his knapsack, and afterwards sold 
them. t(j Captain Griswold, who paid half a bushel of rye for the 
works and had them put in their present case.* The family from 
whom the clock works were taken was Avell known, and their 
name is still a well-known name in New York. 

According to the records f the list of Revolutionary soldiers 
from Torrington included every voter and not one w^as disloyal to 
the American cause, every man keeping to the letter his vows of 
fidelity. 

That the women of Torrington bore their share of the burdens 
of the Revolution is beyond doubt. During the war they held 
weekly meetings at Benjamin Bissell's tavern | to receive and dis- 
cuss the news from the soldiers. Many instances are preserved of 
the privations of the soldiers' families, left dependent on their own 
resources. One woman, Mrs. Noah Beach, had for weeks no bread 
in the house, only griddle-cakes of buckwheat bran, of which her 
son said years after, " If they were baked from morning until four 
o'clock they would still be too sticky to swallow." § 

A family tradition in the neighb(3ring town of Goshen preserves 
the following incident : The head of the household was at the 
war ; a heavy and imexpectedly early fall of snow rendered 
imi)erative the rescue of a flock of sheep in a distant i)asture. 
The wife, with the assistance of another woman, yoked the oxen 

* See frontispiece, page 47S. 

t History of Torrington, Orcutt, p. 232. X Ibid, p. 75. 5; Ibid, p. 234. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN RE\'OLUTION. 



485 



and attaching a lieavv stick of timber to the chain, drove the team 
to the pasture and in the patli thus made managed to get the sheep 
safely home. 

Another bit of family history, given in the words of the narrator, 
is as follows : "I have heard mv cfrandmother say that her grand- 




GRAVE OK CAPT. SHUBAEL GRISWOLD, TOKRINGTON. 

mother was extremely fond of tea ; but it was considered unpat- 
riotic for families to use tea, so she used to make it secretly — on 
the sly, as boys say — and as long as she lived never overcame the 
habit, if she was making tea and heard some one coming, of 
snatching the teapot from the fire and hiding it." 

On receiving news of the invasion of Danbury, a number of 
Goshen men started to aid its defenders. Arriving too late to be 



486 



THE PATRON. SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



of assistance they remained until the British had gone and helped 
to plunder the Tory houses which had escaped the burning. 

" Fisk Beach filled his saddle-bags with heads of hatchelied flax ; 
James Thomps(ui brought home articles of wearing apparel ; 







GRAVESTONK OF MRS. MEHIT.\BEL BURR, TORRINGTON, THE WU-E OE A 
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER. 

Jonathan Wadhams had in his saddle-bags a pair of sad-irons. It 
is said, however, that his wife and daughter strenuously refused 
to use them on the ground that * the receiver is as bad as the thief.' 
Oliver Nort(jn, Avhen he got home found in his pocket an old 
milk cup with the handle off. Josiah Roys brought something, 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AJMERICAN RE\'OLUTION. 487 

Isaac Pratt something. This loading back from Danbiirv was the 
occasion of much sport and joking among the people after their 
return." * 

In the Torrington burial grounds is the last resting place of 
Captain Shubael Griswold, who, according to the inscription on 
the headstone, died in 1807 at the age of seventy-seven years. 

Bearing the names of two women of Torrington whose hus- 
bands served in the war, there are two stones, one of which is 
given in the illustration and has the following inscription : 

In meinor}' of Mrs 

Mehetabel Bu 

RR The Amiable & 

Much Refpected 

Confort of M' Reuben 

Burr Who Departed 

This Life Sept' y" 2q"' 

AD. 1793. In the 45"' 

Year of Her Age. 

Be not too Anxious hear 
My Real State to know 
That all God's ways 
Most Righteous are 
A Future Da}' will show. 

The name of Cotton Mather on the other stone suggests a con- 
nection with the great Bostonian of the same name. The epitaph 
to his wife, like Mehitabel Burr's, is an example of the stone cut- 
ter's art — or lack of it — and of ye quaint epitaphs : 

Here lies the Body of 

M'^ Zilpah wife of "Mr. 

Cotton Mather. She 

died Mar'' ye 24"' AD. 177:! 

in the 23'' j^ear of her age. 

i hope i never shall fergit 
the counsel gave to me 
before she did resine her bre""' 
into the frozen arms of death. 

In later history Torrington has had some distinction as the 
birthplace of the famous abolitionist, John Brown. He was born 

*Manuscript volumes of "Goshen Statistics and Family History," written by 
Lewis M. Norton between 1830 and 1S60. The fifty pages of Revolutionary his- 
tory contained therein were all on the authority of Revolutionary soldiers living 
at that time {1S40 to 1S45) and whose stories Mr. Norton, in many cases, took 
down verbatim. 



488 THE PATRON SAIXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

here on March 9, 1800. He was fifth in descent from Peter Brown, 
who came over in the Mayflower in 1620, and was the grandson of 
a Revolutionary captain who had died in Washington's army. He 
left Torrington a lad of five years, and half a century later was a 
pioneer in the conflict which was to free a nation of its African 




(From a copyrighted photograph kindly loaned by John J. Brooks, 1 - ; 

slaves. In jioint of time he belonged to the nineteenth century, 
but in his characteristics he seemed an offshoot of an earlier age. 
He had the stern virtues, the resolute will, and the God-fearing 
conscience of the men who founded the New England colonies. 

But the town of Torrington, in its earlier or later history, is not 
rich in historical associations, either of place or people. To its 
loyal sons and daughters, however, it speaks of prosperity and 
contentment, and to them and to the many others who year by 
year take their way to Litchfield county there are attractions of 
nature's own in tlie invigorating air of its mountains and the 
restfulness of its valleys. 

Marx E. Brooks. 



GREEN WOODS 




X Litchfield County the northeastern townships were 
the Latest of the colony towns to be settled and incor- 
|)orated. The Winsted chapter, in its title Green 
Woods, preserves the name given bv the early propri- 
etors of the section to the rugged highlands lying south of the 
Massachusetts line, between the valleys of the Farmington and 
the Housatonic rivers. It was a tract of precipitous hills and 
pathless swamps, covered bv a luxuriant growth of hemlock and 
laurel, while the banks of the pcnids were a tangle of thorny vines 
as impenetrable as the chaparral of southern latitudes. The 
region belonged to the towns of Windsor and Hartford and even 
before the earliest surveys it was called the Green Woods tract. 

On its division into townships the center of the tract was called 
Winchester, and on the central eastern border of this town in later 
years the village of Winsted grew up, becoming in 1858 an incor- 
porated borough. 

In 1759, before anv settlement had begun, the General Assem- 
bly at its May session ordered opened "a new country road from 
the mansion house of Samuel Humphrey in Simsbury to Col. 
David Whitney's in Canaan — to the great accommodation and 
benefit of his majesty's subjects, and especially in time of war, 
occasionally traveling or marching." This thoroughfare was 
opened in 1761 and was known as the North Country Road. 
According to tradition it was the wonder of the times that a 
direct and passable road could be built through the jungles and 
rocks of the Green Woods tract. It was not an Appian Way, but 
it was of great importance to travel, especially during the Revo- 
lution when it was used for the transfer of troops and munitions 
between Hartford and Albany, all the soldiers from Eastern 
Connecticut probably passing over it on their way to northern 
frontier service. 



49° 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



It was on tlie old North Road that Grand Juror Balcom 
attempted to arrest Col. Ethan Allen for desecration of the 
Sabbath day. Colonel Allen Avas on his way to Ticonderoga, and 
on Sunday, instead of stopping at one of the inns in the vicinit}- — 
at Landlord Roberts's on Wallen's Hill, or Freedom Wright's near 
Rowley Pond, or at the Rockwells' or the Phelpses', a little further 
westward — he continued on his journey. " My authority does 
not allow you to trayel on the Sabba' day," cried the important 




Balcom. The colonel drew his sword, Hourished it aloft and with 
a great oath exclaimed, '' Get into your burrow, you woodchuck, 
or I'll cut your head off," and went on his way without further 
parley. It is said Balcom was careful eyer after as to whom he 
hailed on the Sabbath day. 

In 1762 the Assembly ordered another highway to be opened 
along a bridle-path from a point "three rods from Mr. Gold's 
fore door in Torringford to Still Riycr, thence by Spectacle Pond 
and Mott's house to a stake and stones in Norfolk." This was the 
old South Country Road ; it was so difficult a road to trayel that 
it was said Landlord Burr (ui Ilayden Hill used to detain his 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 49 1 

guests on their journey until after morning worship, tliat tliev 
might have tlie benefit of his prayers in behalf of tlieir efforts to 
get up the " dugway " west of J^urrville. 

Over both the North and the South Country Roads detachments 
of Burgoyne's soldiery marched as prisoners of war after the 
battle of Saratoga. An aged lady, still living, relates from mem- 
ory an incident told to her by Grandma Paine (Mindwell Roberts) 
of Wallen's Hill. Mrs. Paine's mother, when she saw Burgoyne's 
troops coming over the hill, pulled in the latch-string and taking 
her two children, Mindwell, four years old, and a baby sister 
(Lucy Roberts), fled out of the back door and hid behind a brush 
fence. From this hiding place she pulled aside the brush to see 
the British soldiers march by. 

Here and there along their route prisoners escaped, or being ill 
were left behind, some of whom became inhabitants of the Green 
Woods towns. Their names appear on local records of Revolu- 
tionary date, generally with the descriptive word " Hessian," and 
their descendants still remain in this vicinity. 

The towmship of Winchester was of slow settlement. Although 
its pioneers did not suffer the horrors of Indian warfare, their 
hardships were peculiar and severe. The historian of the town 
remarks : " It is a wonder that any but outlaws should have 
resorted to a region so forlorn in its physical characteristics and 
so niggardly in its proprietary management." Large numbers of 
the early comers did remove later to the rich lands of Western 
New York when the latter were opened to settlers. At the organi- 
zation of the town, in 1771, there were but twenty-eight families 
on the South Road and but four on the North Road. The roads 
were five or six miles apart, and before 1780 the only means of 
communication betw^een them was by a crooked and difficult 
bridle-path. 

In 1774 the second colonial census gave Winchester a popula- 
tion of three hundred and thirty-nine, a large proportion of whom 
were women and children, hence the severe strain on Winchester 
when the call came for soldiers, and hence its meagre Revolution- 
ary record. 

The infant town, however, supplied her quota of men, who left 
behind them on their hill farms families dependent on their own 



492 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



exertion often for food and homespun. The records are some- 
what pathetic in the light they throw on the hardships of its 
people : " Voted, that a committee be appointed to provide for 
the families of those men that are enlisted into the Continental 
Army." " Voted, if the committee cannot procure a sufficiency of 
provisions for the families of those men who are gone into the 
army, the Selectmen shall lay the matter before the Governor and 
Council, and pray for them to point out some w\ay for our relief." 




n.N rHK OLD SOUTH ROAD, GREEN WOODS, NOW WINSTKD. 

There is an interesting picture of the home life of this period 
frcjm the pen of a venerable lady,* a native of Winchester and 
a descendant of a pioneer heroine. 

In 1 75 1 Capt. Josiah Avered of Bethlem (Wcjodburv) purchased 
some undivided lands in Winchester. He was soon after disabled 
by an accident and confined to his bed until his death in Bethlem, 

*Mrs. Swift, a granddaughter of Mrs. Hannah Avered. (Mrs. Avered's son. 
Dr. Josiah Everitt, married (second) Nell3\ daughter of Captain Samuel Pease of 
Enfield, and spent his life in Winchester. Their daughter Nelly, born in 17S6, 
married Dr. Zephaniah Swift.) Mrs. Swift's manuscript was prepared for the 
"Annals of Winchester," by the Hon. John Boyd, from which the above stories 
of the Avered family are taken, some of which being quoted verbatim. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAX REVOLUTION. 493 

in 1765. His property in Betlilem being almost exhausted by his 
long illness, his widow, Mrs. Hannah (Hinman) Avered (Everitt as 
noAV spelled), soon after his death, removed with her seven chil- 
dren and aged mother to the wilds of Winchester, when there 
were but three families in that vicinity. A clearing was made and 
a house built on their land on the old South Country Road, two 
miles from the center toward Norfolk. For a long time the house 
had not an iron hinge or latch and for some time not even a door. 
During the severe winters hungry wolves howled at night in tlie 
enclosure of the cottage and were seen to jump over the fence 
Avhen any one opened the door. During the hard winter of 1783 
snow fell every other day for six weeks. Grain and corn were 
boiled for family food. Wood was drawn on a hand-sled over 
the drifts by one of the sons, Andrew Avered, on snow-shoes and 
taken in at a window. During the war another scui. Noble 
Avered, was a chaplain in the army and a third, J(jsiah,* was away 
from home, at first studying for his profession and afterwards in 
command of a company on the Canada frontier. 

During one winter a piece of checked woolen for soldiers' shirts 
was put into the loom, but it was impossible to weave on account 
of the cold ; it was therefore wound off in balls, then doubled, one 
thread white and one blue, and twisted on the great wheel. With 
the wool thus prepared Hannah Avered and her four daughters 
sat in a circle around the fireplace enclosed by blankets suspended 
from the joists overhead, and knitted the yarn into stockings for 
the army. One night, amid the howling of the winter blast, they 
sat in consultation whether thev should break up housekeeping 
and each go out for employment for herself. After a sleepless 
night Hannah Avered told the family that by the help of God they 
would keep together. 

One Monday morning during tlie war Diana Avered received 
an invitation to a wedding to occur one week later ; she must 
therefore have a new gown. The only store was near the Tor- 
rington line, and about four miles distant. ^Irs. Avered rode to 
the store, where she found a pattern of chintz which coidd be 
bought in exchange for eleven and a half yards of checked woolen 
shirting for soldiers' use, but its owner would not take Continen- 

* See note, page 492. 



494 TFIK PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

tal bills. Mrs. Avered arrived home about an hour before sun- 
down. There were wool, cards, wheel, net, loom and blue dye, all 
in the house, but not a thread of yarn, and that night before Diana 
Avered went to bed she carded, spun and put in the dye-pot the 
necessary yarn, and finally the whole piece of clotli w'as woven, 
the gown pattern purchased, made up and worn to the wedding. 

"Widow Hannah Averit " was one of the few who " owned the 
Covenant" and who were thereupon declared to be "a visible 
church of Jesus Christ." vShe was the only woman whose name 
was recorded on the list of those who took the Oath of Fidelity to 
the State of Connecticut when the Articles of Confederation were 
presented to the towns for approval. She was eightv-nine years 
old at her death in 1803. Her round table and a wooden latch 
from her door are still preserved. 

There is no evidence that the town of Winchester at any time 
shirked its duty. On the Lexington Alarm two volunteers 
marched to Boston. There were soldiers from Winchester at 
Ticonderoga, Quebec, Bunker Hill, Long Island, Saratoga, and on 
other battle fields. 

The names of soldiers which appear in our local histories are 
found on the muster and pay-rolls and such other documents as 
are preserved in the state archives. But the record is very imper- 
fect and includes only a few of those who performed military 
service in the war. Scarcely a mention is found of the services of 
the militia, w^hich was repeatedly called out from Litchfield 
county to Danbury, Horseneck, Long Island, Peekskill and other 
points on the North River during the long struggle for the High- 
lands. Probably there was not an able-bodied man of the town 
who failed to serve in some of this harassing service. 

Joseph Hoskins of Winchester was trumpeter in a cavalry 
detachment that went down from Litchfield county to Long 
Island. Their gaunt ap|:)earance, rusty ecpiipments and pacing 
horses excited the ridicule of certain men in Washington's armv, 
but their good service in the battle and on the retreat fr(un Brook- 
lyn Heights won approval and appreciation. In the Saratoga 
campaign, among others from Winchester was Deacon Seth Hills. 
He was present at the surrender of Burgoyne and after rhe battle 
assisted in clearintr the fiekl of the dead and wounded. Seth Hills 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERTCAN REVOLUTION. 495 

was the first deacon of the Winchester church and the first repre- 
sentative from the town to the Assemblv. 

From an affidavit of Col. Aaron Austin, accompanving a petition 
of David GofE for compensation for service, it appears that Goff 
went as sergeant with Captain Griswokl's company into Canada 
in 1775. In 1776 he again enlisted in Colonel Austin's company, 
and in the retreat from Canada in that year, his ingenuity was the 
means of saving the patriot army from capture and possible 
destruction. He devised and carried out a plan for getting the 
boats up the Chambly Rapids by means of drag ropes Avith men 
on the shore to tow them. In this way the soldiers and their 
equipments were safely transported ; otherwise thev would have 
been forced to march by a long circuit of several miles, which, as 
the army was destitute of wagons and all other means of transpor- 
tation, was practically impossible. As a reward for his services 
Goff was afterwards commissioned a lieutenant in the Continental 
army. 

Oliver Coe, another Green Woods man, served under Captain 
Sedgwick and with Captain Hinman at Ticonderoga. On his 
way home he was taken sick near Lake George with camp fever. 
He reached home eight days later, November 28th, and died after 
five weeks' illness. He left a widow and six children, all of whom 
had the same disease. A memorial was presented t() the Assembly 
by his administrator, asking for a reimbursement to the family 
for the expenses of his sickness and death, and an appropriation 
of ^14 6s. was made to the family by the Assembly. 

Oliver Coe, Jr., served several times in the Revolution and on 
the breaking out of the Indian war, again enlisted for three years. 
He served in General Harmer's campaign down the Ohio and was 
one of seven survivors of Colonel Harden's detachment which 
was cut off by the Indians on the headwaters of the Scioto in 1791. 
He also served in tlie military guard attached to the Surveyor's 
party of the Ohio Company's purchase ; after which he returned 
to his native town and became a thrifty and wealthy farmer, 
enjoying in a high degree the respect of the community where he 
lived. 

Moses Hatch of Winchester enlisted at sixteen and served 
throueh the war. Some twentv vears before his death he made 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 497 

application for a pension, but the pay-rolls containing his name 
were lost, and he could not furnish the required formal proof of his 
military service. He was advised to give some details that might 
verify his claim ; among otlier events he related the occurrence of 
his having captured, while on picket duty, a Tory spv who was 
tried, condemned and shot by order of the colonel of the regi- 
ment. The application remained a long time undecided ; one day 
when under consideration the identical colonel chanced to call on 
the secretary of war. The statement was read to him with the 
question, " Do you remember about that spy ? " " Yes," he replied, 
" I remember the scoundrel well, and the name of his captor was 
Moses Hatch, as good a soldier as ever served." The pension was 
at once granted, and was continued to Captain Hatcli's wife (Abi- 
gail Loveland) until her death. 

Roswell Grant of Green Woods joined the army when seven- 
teen years old. When Baron Steuben (general inspector of mili- 
tary drill) was selecting a corps for special discipline. Grant was 
surprised to find liimself the onlv man chosen from the Litchfield 
Countv company; "being," as he said of iiimself, " such a little 
nubbin of a fellow, I had no idea he would take me." While in 
the Highlands he was placed on guard in extremely cold weather 
at one of the bleakest points ; the army moved on, apparently 
forgetting him, but he bravely stuck to his post until relieved two 
days later. After the war he was a large farmer, an industrious 
and honest man and peculiarly conscientious. In later life, when 
going to Litchfield one day on foot, a neighbor entrusted him 
with a letter to be delivered there. On his return after dark and 
when within a mile of home, he thought of the letter which he had 
forgotten to deliver. He immediatelv turned back, walked the 
fourteen miles to Litchfield, delivered the letter and reached 
home before daylight the next morning. 

The continued drafts of militia men for short terms of service 
rendered it almost impossible for the thinly settled Green Woods 
towns to supply their allotted quotas, as the following quotations 
from the town records give evidence : " Voted, to raise sixpence 
hard money on the pound to hire the soldiers called for." " Voted, 
Lieut. Bronson to go to Hartford to get Dolphin's son to count 
for Winchester." " Voted, Capt. Benjamin Benedict and Dea. 
32 



498 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Scth Hills to hire the two men required." Yet the census of 1782 
gives a population to the town of six hundred and eighty-eight, 
double that of 1774. 

Although little is recorded of the women of the Revolutionary 
period, there is no doubt they equalled the men in devotion and 
patriotism. A pleasant bit of family history contributed by a 
well-beloved member of the Green Woods Chapter goes to prove 
the truth of this. " I remember a story that my grandmother, 
Mrs. Reuben Rockwell of Colebrook, used to tell her children 
and grandchildren about her mother, the wife of Col. Bezaleel 
Beebe of the Revolutionarv army. Mrs. Beebe's maiden name was 
Elizabeth Marsh, and she is described as a ' slender, rather delicate 
woman, of marked refinement and of great force of character.' 
The wives of the soldiers attended not onlv to the affairs of the 
household and to the business on the farm in the absence of their 
husbands, but also had to card the wool, spin and dye the yarn and 
in many cases to weave the cloth and make the garments which their 
husbands wore in the field. A part at least of Colonel Beebe's 
uniform was made at home. We are familiar with the uniform of 
an officer of that period — a swallow-tailed coat, a long waist-coat, 
knee breeches and long stockings fastened with silver buckles. 
The Beebes were a tall race. Several men among the descendants 
of Colonel Beebe measured six feet three or four inches in height. 
Colonel Beebe was himself one of the tallest of his family. 
Elizabeth Beebe, his wife, used to knit the long, black woolen 
stockings which he wore in the winter. On one occasion, how- 
ever. Colonel Beebe was summoned to a distant post on very short 
notice and was allowed a short furlough in order to visit his 
family and to make preparations for his departure. He arri\'ed at 
Litchfield on the evening of one dav and could stay until the 
morning of the second day, giving him one full day at home. On 
looking over his wardrobe his wife found that stockings were 
needed, and she remembered with a pang that onlv three stockings 
of the two new pairs she was knitting were finished. She rose 
early the next morning, took her needles and began to "knit two 
and seam two" with the determination that the stockings should 
be finished in time for her husband's departure. Such a task had 
never been accomplished by any woman in her town. But 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. '99 

Elizabeth Beebe was a determined spirit and the neecUes tlew 
faster than the minutes all the long forenoon. At noon she 
stopped for dinner, giving the work into other hands. As the 
afternoon wore on the stocking grew }ierceptiblv longer. As 
night came on the tired woman walked backward and forward, 
but still kept up the knitting. Night fell, the candles were 
brought in, and the more intricate work of setting and binding 
off the heel was accomplished. Then she took a hastv cup of tea 
and began on the long foot, never stopping till the stocking was 
toed off, the end drawn through and fastened, and tlie colonel's 
knapsack packed ready for his departure earlv the next morning. 
This was considered a remarkable achievement and the storv was 
told of Mrs. Beebe long after her busy fingers were at rest. But 
I have never heard that she suffered in any way for her unusual 
dav's work, which goes to prove that even the delicate little 
women of Revolutionary times were made of sturdy stuff." 

"And what shall I more say ? for the time would fail me to tell " 
of the Bronsons, the Benedicts, the Wetmores, the Andrews and 
the Robertses, who " escaped the edge of the sword, and turned 
to flight the armies of the aliens." 

They obtained a good report. Their memory is honored by 
their descendants, and by those who read of their patriotic sacri- 
fices, and the Daughters of the American Revolution often place 
a wreath of laurel upon the ancient turf above their graves. 

Einilx Perkins Roberts. 

(MRS. HAKVEN' L. ROBERT^^.l 

JiiJith Bigelow Phelps. 



The authorities used in preparing this sketch were 
Boyd's Annals of Winchester. 
Hollister's History of Connecticut. 
Barber's Historical Collections. 
Connecticut Ouarterlw 
Faniilv Documents. 




THE COGSWELL TAVERN, NEW PRESTON. WASH LNOTON. 



(The ("onini:uulcT-in-(hief. severai ofliccrs and many soldiers were sheltered and fed here durins 

the Revolution.) 



JUDEA 




ASHINGTON was the first town incoi'iKjratecl in Con- 
necticut after the Declaration of Independence and, 
according- to tradition, tlie first town in the United 
States to be named in honor (A the Commander-in- 
Chief of the American Army. 

Two ecclesiastical societies were embraced in the town of 
Washington — Judea and New Preston. The earliest recorded set- 
tlement was within the limits of Judea, and was made bv Joseph 
Hurlburt about the year 1734. When the first sermon was 
preached in Judea all the inhal)itants attended the service, which 
was held in a small room in Mr. Hurlburt's dwelling house. 
The Rev. Reuben Judd, their first minister, was ordained Septem- 
ber I, 1742. The ordination exercises were held in a grove and a 
church organization, consisting of twelve male members, was 
formed on that dav. During the year a church edifice was built 
and Judea, withdrawing from the parent town of Woodbury and 
annexing a small tract of land from Litchfield, became an inde- 
pendent society. 

New Preston was a younger society by several years and was 
made up of territory taken from New Milford and Kent. This 
section of the town of Washington, spoken of in the early records 
as the "north purchase," has retained its first society name and is 
still called New^ Preston. The name Judea, however, is no longer 
preserved, the original Judea society being now called Washing- 
ton. It is a matter of regret to those who respect early customs 
and tradition that the former name has been allowed to drop out 
of use. Hence the Washington Chapter of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution took the name of " Judea " in memory of 
the oldest parish of the toWn. In the accompanying illustration 
is seen an old Judea house, almost hidden by lilac buslies, which 
has stood for a century and a half, and whose gambrei roof has 
sheltered five generations of tlie same family. 



502 



THE I'ATKOX SATXTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



The (■h;i[)tcr is iiaiiiccl in lionor of the oldest section of the town 
and it also lias its chosen heroine in the person of Anna Whittle- 
sey Cogswell, who during; the Revolution was a prominent mem- 
ber of the New Preston Society, this division of honors meeting 
with the approval of tlie members from both sections of the town. 

Anna Whittlesey, the daughter of Eliphalet and Dorothy 
(Kellogg) Whittlesey, was born in 1744, in Whittlesey Valley, 
New Preston. She has several claims to remembrance as a 




A JUDEA HOrSK, WASHINGTON. 
I .\ centui'v :iii(i a half okl.) 



daugliter of Connecticut. Her mother, Dorothv Kellogg, was a 
great granddaughter of (Governor Thomas Welles of Hartford, a 
granddaughter of John Chester of Wethersfield and a great great 
niece of Thomas Hooker, while her father's family, the Whittle- 
seys, were among the earliest settlers of Saybrook. Anna 
Whittlesey's childhood home is situated on the bank of the pic- 
turesque Shepaug river and looks out upon beautiful Avooded 
hills. Of the house represented in the illustration, onlv the main 
jjortion is the original house; the ell was added about one hun- 
dred years ago and the bay window is of recent date. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



5°: 



In 1762, when Anna was eighteen years of ag-e, she became tlie 
wife of William Cogswell of New Preston, the son of Edward 
Cogswell and the youngest of thirteen children. When William 
was about ten years old his father moved from Preston in tlie 
eastern part of the state to the hills of Litchfield conntv, and 
gave this new place, which he had selected as a home for himself 
and family, the name of New Presttjn, after the town which he 
had left. 




I IIIIWHU^ 



GIRLHOOD HOME OF ANNA WHriTLESEY COGSWELL, NEW PRESTON, WASHINGTON. 



William Cogswell was the moderator of the first town meeting 
held in Washington, and was the first representative to the 
General Assembly, serving for eight consecutive terms. He was 
always a staunch patriot and was one of the first to initiate move- 
ments in resistance to British oppression. In 1774 he was ap- 
pointed one of a committee to collect and communicate all infor- 
mation in regard to war movements. In 1776 he served on tlie 
Committee of Inspection and Correspondence. When the war 
broke out he joined the Continental army and was rapidly 
promoted to a captaincv under Washington, was in command in 
the retreat from Long Island and later marched with his company 



504 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

to repel the invasion of New Haven, Julv 5, 1779. I^ May, 1781, 
he was promoted to the rank of major in the Thirteenth regiment 
and was known for the rest of his life as Major Cogswell. 

Like so many houses of that day when travelling was slow, the 
home of Major and Anna Whittlesey Cogswell was a tavern. 
Major Cogswell was the owner of a large property and during his 
absence at the time of the war, his wife proved an able business 
manager, besides bringing up a family of ten children, nine of 
whom reached maturity and married. 

Several industries were carried on upon the Cogswell estate. 
Major Cogswell had two thousand acres of land and the apples 
from his orchards yielded one thousand barrels of cider annually. 
He owned a distillery in which the cider was made into cider 
bi^andy and a malt-house in which beer was brewed. The grain 
raised on his farm was ground in his own grist-mill and he had 
beside a saw-mill, an iron foundry, a potashery for soap making, 
and a store. Madam Cogswell, in the long-continued absences of 
lier luisband, was left in charge of this property, having the 
supervision of twenty men who Avere employed in its varied 
industries, which proves both her unusual ability and her unusual 
physical vigor. 

Mrs. Cogswell was often annoyed by the Tories in the neigh- 
borhood, who gathered about the premises and sought to intimi- 
date her with false reports of British victories. On one occasion 
a chance was offered Mrs. Cogswell for retaliation, and who can 
blame our heroine if she took advantage of the opportunity ? A 
noted Tory of the neighborhood was seized and brought to the 
tavern by the angry patriots, who threatened him with a coat of 
tar and feathers, if only the necessary articles could anywhere be 
found. Mrs. Cogswell remonstrated vehemently against such a 
proceeding, and charged the patriots not to touch her feathers in 
the garret or the tar in the cellar ! Alas ! for the dignity of the 
Tory ; the necessary articles were obtained so very conveniently 
that they were liberally applied. It was long remembered of Mrs. 
Cogswell that she used to say she "never feared a Tory." 

An amusing story is told of another adventure in which Mrs. 
Cogswell figured in connection with a noted general of the 
Continental army. Israel Putnam, on his way from Hartfcu'd to 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



505 



the Hudson, sent an orderly in advance to New Preston to 
announce that he and his staff would shortlv spend the night at 
the Cogswell tavern. In celebration of this event a ball was to 
be given by the Baldwin family of Baldwin Hill, to which 
General Putnam and his staff were invited. The gallant general 
graciously accepted the invitation and invited his hostess, 
Mrs. Cogswell, to ride with him to the ball. It was a rough 




OLD TURMIKE I.N W ASiU.NUTu.\ . 
(Between Boston and Hartford and the Highlands of Hudson.) 



road over which they had to travel and a steady climb of a 
mile ; but it is of the ride down the hill on their return that 
the storv treats. The ball and the refreshments proved very 
enlivening. When the time came to say good night General 
Putnam and his staff were in a livelv humor. General Putnam 
was short and stout and Madam Cogswell was tall and large, 
which made the situation not only somewhat ridiculous but even 
hazardous for Madam Cogswell in their descent of Baldwin Hill, 
for General Putnam took Baldwin Mill as he took the steps at 



5o6 



THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 



Putnam Hill in Greenwich — ^at a full gallop, and Madam Cogs- 
well was barely able to hold on. However, the foot of the hill 
was reached in safety, and to this day the story of this ride has 
been repeated in the Cogswell familv from one generation to 
another. 

The Cogswell tavern,* still in a good state of preservation, is on 
the Litchfield and New Milford turnpike about a mile from Lake 
Waramaug and a short distance fronn New Preston village. 
During the Revolution this turnpike was the })rincipal highway 

between the 
Hudson and 
Boston. The 
room in which 
W a s h i n gt o n 
slept on one 
occasion is 
s h o w n ^v i t h 
p r i d e 1) y the 
present o c c u - 
pant of the 
house, who is a 
grea t - g r a n cl - 
daughter of 
Anna Whittle- 
sey Cogswell. 

One visit by 
General Wash- 
ington occurred 
s h o r 1 1 y after 
Andre's arrest. 
News of Arn- 
old's treachery had been brought to Washington, who was in Con- 
necticut, and he was hurrying from Hartford to West Point. The 
Cogswell family was aroused earlv one morning by an orderh', 
who breathlessly told the tale of Arnold's treason and announced 
that (ieneral Washington was not far behind and wished breakfast 

* Now the residence of Mrs. Sarah Cogswell \Vhiulese\'. Sec frontispiece, 
p. 500. 




KIKKPL.VCF. IN THE KncilKX, rOCSWri.L I A \ K K \ , 
NEW PRESTON, W.-VSHINGTOX. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 



507 



for himself and staff. Tlic entire iiousehold helped in the j)re]^a- 
rations and the meal was ready when the guests arrived. J he 
anxious travelers halted only fifteen minutes and then hurried on 
their wav. Washington was so agitated that he could not remain 
seated at table, but drank a bowl of milk as he walked the floor.* 
Large and sudden demands were often made upon Mrs. Cogs- 
well's hospitalitv, but the resources of the Cogswell tavern were 




THE GRAVE UK ANNA WHTrTLESEV COCSWELL. 

(The table stone where the marker stands shows the grave of her husband, Major 'Williani 

Cogswell, New Preston, Washington.) 

never known to fail. One morning when the family was assembled 
at table, the whole household was thrown into confusion by the 

*Irving's Life of Washington states that Washington did not hear of Arnold's 
treason until reaching the Hudson. The story of his agitation at the Cogswell 
tavern, however, is a well-preserved tradition among the Cogswell descendants. 



5o8 THE PATRON' SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

arrival of an officer, wlio came i^alloping up to the door with an 
order for breakfast for tliree hundred men. The illustration 
shows the old kitchen fireplace* in the Cogswell tavern where the 
meals were cooked for the Revolutionary guests. Much of the 
original kitchen has been torn down ; only a shed now used as a 
laundry remains, vet many traditions linger around the place and 
stories are still told in the Cogswell family of incidents of Revolu- 
tionary days. Once twenty-six kettles were used at one time to 
prepare a meal for Revolutionary soldiers— perhaps for this iden- 
tical breakfast. 

Major William Cogswell died in the prime of life. His death 
was a loss to the town, and a calamitv to his family. Anna 
Whittlesey Cogswell survived her husband twentv-four years, and 
with remarkable courage and ability continued to manage the 
large property and to care for her family. She died, deeply 
regretted, January loth, 1810, at the age of sixty-six years and was 
buried beside her husband. The stone marking her grave gives 
only her name and the dates of her birth and death, but the tablet 
wiiich marks her husband's resting place in the New Preston 
cemetery bears the following quaint inscription : 

M.\jOK CoGSWEi.i,, born in 1734, died Feb. 19"', 17S6, aged 52 years. 

Croi)t at noon, he is gone ! he is gone I 
He shined in acts of peace to still a storm, 
Skillful to advise and vigorous to perform, 
Kind to the world and duteous to the skies 
Distress and want on him did fix their e3'es, 
Here lies his body blended with the dust 
Waiting the resurrection of the iust. 

Frances Eliot Hickox. 

"'Mrs. Sarah Cogswell, widow of Gould C. Whittlesey, has kept this fireplace 
in state of preservation for more than seventy years. 



Certain facts concerning Major Cogswell and his wife found in this sketch 
were taken from Jameson's " The Cogswells in America," Cothren's History of 
Ancient Woodbury and Orcutt's History of NewMilford ; others were furnished 
by a great-granddaughter of Anna Whittlesey Cogswell, Mrs. Martha Whittlesey 
Brown, who compiled the first chapter sketch of the New Preston heroine. 



CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE 



Zbc /l^aitvv Sv<\: 



NATHAN HALE MEMORIAL CHAPTER 
EAST HADDAM 



\ri:-^- 







-^j- 



xoontau u »i scnnn 







4-'-fv^^ 



I; \1 IILMINGTUN, LUM.; 1_SLA.\D, .MARKING TUK SI IF. Ul' S.Vlll.W llAl.V. .S LAi'lL l;l'.. 
(Erected by George Taylor, Esq., of Huntington, L. I.) 



NATHAN HALE 




HE quiet town of East Iladdani has not been lacking in 
patriotic sons. Many have gone forth from iier green 
liills at their country's call to serve in field and camp, 
who, after years well spent in civil life have lain down 
in their last sleep in her breeze-swept graveyards. 

But the latest born chapter in Connecticut chose its name 
from none of these. Indeed, the chapter can hardlv be said 
to have chosen a name. The great day of the Nathan Hale cele- 
bration was an incentive to organize a chapter and of itself fur- 
nished a name unquestioned. Thus among the forty-four Revo- 
lutionar}' chapters in Connecticut, the honor of bearing the name 
of Nathan Hale, the martyr spy, falls to East Haddani. where but 
five months of his life were spent.. 

Almost every place connected with events in Nathan Hale's 
twenty-one years of life is now marked by some fitting memorial. 
As early as 1837 the citizens of Coventrv gathered 

" ... with hearts that oft had glowed 

At his soul-stirring tale, 
To wreath the deathless evergreen 
Around the name of Hale." 

and erected a shaft to record that Nathan Hale was born in Cov- 
entry, June 6, 1755. 

He was the sixth child in a family of twelve and was brought 
up in the strictest sect of New England Puritan Othodoxy. His 
father. Deacon Richard Hale, was a pillar of the church and the 
unc[uestioned head of his own household. The dust never gath- 
ered upon his unopened family Bible ; daily prayers and tri-daily 
grace were never omitted, and such gravity of demeanor was 
enjoined in his household that even the innocent Morris Board 
was forbidden as likely to lead to frivohjus habits. 



512 THE PATROX SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

Perhaps Deacon Richard Hale suspected the independent spirit 
of some of his family, for he enforced his restrictions as to even- 
ing amusements by allowing only one candle, which he held him- 
self for his own use in reading. It is an evidence of that daring 
spirit which courted danger, that when the good deacon finally 
nodded and slept in his chair after a dav's farm work, the bovs 
got out the forbidden board and finished their game bv the light 
of the unsteadv candle. 

Nathan, as he grew to manhood, did not revolt either from 
religious or paternal rule. Deacon Hale desired that one of his 
sons should follow the profession of his father, the Rev. John 
Hale, first minister of Beverly, Mass., and to that end Nathan 
took the first steps bv preparing for college under the tuition of 
the Rev. Dr. Huntington, pastor of the parish. Dr. Huntington 
performed his dutv so well that Nathan and his elder brother 
Enoch* entered Vale College when Nathan was still in his 
sixteenth year. 

In college Nathan Hale took a livelv interest in all phases of 
college life. lie was one of the founders of the famous Linonian 
Society and one of the first contributors to the Linonian Library, 
whose treasure-lined alcoves live in the memory of Yale's Alumni. 

He graduated among the first thirteen of his class, but his 
scholarship seems not to have made so deep an impression as did 
a certain prodigious leap of his, the limits of which were long 
marked upon the college green. That the social attractions of a 
college town were not neglected by him we gather from a certain 
debate in which he championed the cause of the ladies. It was a 
Commencement debate on the question : "Whether the education 
of daughters be not, without anv just reason, more neglected than 
that of the sons." 

During his college term an attachment began which shows that 
the "bravest are the tenderest, the loving are tlie daring." Eliza- 
beth, the first Avife of Deacon Hale, died when Nathan was twelve 
years old, and Deacon Hale married for his second wife "the 
Widow Adams" of Canterburv. The second wife came to her 
husband's home with several children bv her former marriage, 
among them two daughters, Sarah and Alice. 

* Enoch HuIl- was the grandfather of Edward Everett Hale. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN' RE\ f JIXTIOX. 



513 



Scarcely had the elder Hale successfully won his suit for the 
hand of the widow when his son John fell a victim to the charms 
of Sarah. A second link between the two families having been 
forged by the marriage of John and Sarali, Nathan and Alice in 
their turn complicated matters by falling in love. Deacon Hale 
decided tliat the Hale and Adams families were getting altogether 
too closely connected, and besides he designed Nathan for the 




THK NATHAN HALK SCHOOL HOTSK, EAST HAIjIjAM. 
(Now the property of the Conn. Sons of the .American Revolution. 1 

ministrv and was convinced that an early marriage would jjrove a 
hindrance to Nathan's success in his profession. He sternly 
frowned down anv engagement between the young people, and 
Nathan went off to teach school in East Haddam with a buoyancy 
of spirit which rose above the frowns of stern fate or stern 
parents. 

The village where he taught during the winter of 1773-4 seems 
to have been too secluded to furnish the diversions necessary to 
33 



514 THE PATROM SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

banish from the young teaclicr's mind thoughts of Alice. We 
judge from his own words written to a friend, " I was at the 
receipt of vour letter in East Haddam {alias Moodvis), a place 
which I at first for a long time, concluded inaccessible either by 
friends, acquaintances, or letters. Nor was I convinced of the 
contrary until 1 received yours, and at the same time two others 
from Alden and Wyllys. It was equally, or more difficult to 
convey anything from Moodus." 

Despite this seclusion one piece of news reached him v/hile 
there which he might have wished had never found him. During 
Hale's school term in East Haddam Alice Adams yielded to the 
pressure brought to bear upon her, and consented to a marriage 
with Mr. Elijah Ripley of Coventry, whose only recorded weak- 
ness is that he wooed and married one whose love was already 
pledged to another. 

To offset the bitterness of this disappointment Nathan Hale 
evidently turned to nature for sympathy. His earliest biographer 
says, " The rich scenery of the town, its rocky and uneven face, 
the phenomena from which it derives its Indian name, its numer- 
ous legends of Indian Powwows, its Mount Tom and Salmon 
River, were all sources of great delight to the young instructor, 
as habitually, the cares of school being over, he wandered around 
for air and exercise, for pleasure and the sports of the chase, there 

" Where the little country girls 

Still stop to whisper, and listen, and look, 
And tell, while dressing their sunny curls. 
Of the F:51ack Fo.x of Salmon Brook." 

Or, perhaps he found satisfaction enough in the friends whom he 
everywhere gained. One who lived long in East Haddam and 
died within the memory of residents now living, Mrs. Hannah 
Pierson, described him as happy, faithful and successful in his 
teaching. " Everybody loved him," she said, " he was so sprightly, 
so intelligent and kind, and — so handsome." 

In the spring of '74 he accepted the position of instructor in the 
New London Grammar School, where he had a class of thirty-two 
pupils, many of them " Latiners." School hours and school terms 
were longer a century and a quarter ago tlian they are now, but 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 515 

Hale's motto was, "A man ought never to lose a moment of 
time," and he lived up to it by taking a class of young ladies for 
private tutoring, which met in the early morning before the open- 
ing of school. 

In a conversation with Judge Julius Attvvood, the former owner 
of the Hale school house in East Haddam, Rev. Edward Everett 
Hale, Nathan Hale's grandnephevv, said with evident enjoyment 
of the joke, "It is a tradition in our family that Nathan Hale's 
school hours w^ere from seven in the morning until five in the 
afternoon, but that the young ladies became so fond of his com- 
panv that they came at five and remained until seven." 

The young ladies simply admired one who impressed everyone 
with his graces of character and person. His disposition was 
sunny, his mind brilliant and cultivated, his manner genial and 
courteous. His face was beautiful in feature and glowing with 
health, and he had laughing blue eyes and soft brown hair 
— manly strength which he possessed in a marked degree 
redeeming this beauty from any charge of effeminacy. Tall 
above the average, deep of chest and strong of limb, he could put 
one hand on the top of a board fence as high as his head and clear 
the fence at a bound. He could stand in an empty hogshead and 
spring from it into a second, and into a third and thence over and 
out "like a cat." Indeed, he used to say to the young ladies, with 
a laugh, that he could "do anything but spin." 

While he was so pleasantly occupied in New London, two 
events occurred which probably seemed to Hale the most impor- 
tant in his life. The first was personal. Elijah Ripley died and 
his child-wife Alice, only eighteen years old, wedded and widowed 
WMthin the vear, came back to the old homestead at Coventry 
bringing with her an infant son, who in a few months followed 
his father. 

The second event was the Lexington Alarm. The shot " heard 
round the world," echoed fierce and loud in the doughty city of 
New London. A messenger riding post from Boston urged his 
foam-flecked horse into the town, and a mass-meeting was called 
for the same evening at Miner's Tavern. Indignant speeches 
were made in the spring twilight, but the young school-teacher 
ventured farther than anyone else when he said, " let us not lay 



5l6 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

down our arms until \vc have gained independence." It was a 
new word I " Independence," whispered one of the school-boy 
listeners to his father, " what does that mean?" Well did the 
elder know that it might mean the hangman's rope ! 

The next morning the school assembled ; the young teacher 
staved with his pupils onlv long enough to offer the morning 
prayer and to bid each pupil farewell, then he joined the company 
about to march to Boston. 

After taking his company to Boston Nathan Hale returned to 
New London to resign his position in the school, and reached 
Boston on his second trip too late to take part in the Battle of 
Bunker Hill. Having joined the army at Boston, he was pro- 
moted to a captaincv in the autumn, was introduced to Washing- 
ton by Jonathan Trumbull, and won the friendship of many 
officers. He devested his time during the winter to drilling his 
companv, which became one of the best drilled in the army. 

During the siege of Boston the young captain obtained a fur- 
lough and visited his home in Coventry. He found there his 
widowed sweetheart, x-Vlice Ripley, who was then not quite nine- 
teen. Nathan Hale and Alice Adams were constant to each other 
and before the expiration of the furlough even Deacon Hale was 
forced to consent t(^ their betrothal. 

Animated by the courage of new hopes, Nathan Hale bade fare- 
well to his dear ones and went back to the army which was soon 
stationed in New York, where he won commendation for faithful- 
ness and especiallv for his unaided capture of a provision vessel. 

From our point of view it is hard to realize that for Washington 
the chances of failure were manv. Perhaps failure never seemed 
more likelv than in the summer of 1776. Stationed above the 
city of New York he had about fourteen thousand men — inexperi- 
enced, half-fed, unpaid, altogether dissatisfied citizen soldiers — 
with whom to guard an exposed coast line of sixteen miles; while 
across on Long Island lav twentv-five thousand British veterans, 
under experienced commanders, who might initiate anyone of a 
dozen plans Avhich Avould crush American independence in the 
^SS- S^ untenable was his position that Washington in council 
favored the withdrawing of his army from near New York and the 
burning of the city to prevent its serving as winter-quarters for 



DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 517 

the enemy. In place of this his only chance lav in obtaining 
information of the position and plans of the British, to gain which 
someone must act the dangerous and dishonorable part of a spy. 

He entrusted the selection of the man to Colonel Knowlton, 
who promptly called a meeting of his officers, explained to them 
Wasiiington's needs and asked for a volunteer from his staff, 
since an errand of such importance demanded a keen and well- 
trained mind — one who could at a glance comprehend plans and 
make accurate drafts of fortifications. 

Not one of Colonel Knowlton's officers present responded to his 
appeal. A French sergeant (voicing, perhaps, the thought of all) 
said, " I am ready to fight the British at any time and anv place, 
but I am not willing to go among them to be hung up like a 
dog ! " As the meeting was about to dissolve Captain Hale 
entered the room, and on learning the needs of General Washing- 
ton promptly responded, in a voice calm and decisive but weak 
from recent illness, " I will undertake it." 

Necessary as was the duty, Nathan Hale's friends felt that for 
him to go was too great a sacrifice, besides he was urged by every 
hope of future honor, success and happiness to withdraw his offer, 
but he stood firm. His descent and his training are evident in his 
reply, " I wish to be useful and any sort of service necessary to 
the public good becomes honorable bv being necessary. If the 
exigencies of mv country demand a peculiar service its claims to 
perform that service are imperative." 

He decided to enter the British lines in his former character of a 
Yankee school-teacher and, going up tlie Sound to Norwalk, he 
there donned the grave dress and broad-brimmed hat of a school- 
master, leaving with an attendant his valuables except his watch 
and his Yale diploma, and then crossed the Sound in an armed 
sloop placed at his command. 

He landed at Huntington, gave orders that a boat should call 
for him there dailv, and started on his desperate mission. Near 
the landing place was a tavern, the Cedars, kept by widow Rachel 
Chichester, "Mother Chich's " house being a gathering place for 
the Royalists of the country-side. Nathan Hale prudently avoided 
the place, breakfasted at a liouse fartlier on, and struck off on foot 
toward the west. 



5l8 THE PATRON SAINTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

For the next fortnight Nathan Hale disappears from view, the 
whereabouts of a schoolmaster being too insignificant to be noted. 
At the end of two weeks, his task completed, he was back at the 
rendezvous waiting for his expected boat. He stopped at the 
Cedars instead of avoiding it as on his first visit. Had he grown 
careless from continued success, or did he hope to pick up some 
last bit of information from the habitues of the place ? Hardly 
had he joined them Avhen one of them looked at him critically, got 
up and went out. Shortly after someone of the company 
announced the approach of a boat. Hale hastened to the wharf 
expecting to meet his friends, but seeing only strange faces, 
turned away. He was instantly covered by muskets and stopped 
by the command "surrender or die." In a moment from the 
heights of success he was hurled in his hopes into the depths of 
failure. 

Hale was taken by boat to New York and brought for trial 
before General Howe, in which the merest formalities were gone 
through. In his shoes were found drawings of the enemy's posi- 
tion and Latin notes of their plans, all so accurately done that 
Howe trembled at the risk of capture and defeat to which this 
stripling of twenty-one had exposed the British army. Con- 
fronted by his own evidence Nathan Hale acknowledged his 
name, rank and object, and was sentenced to be hanged as a spy 
the next morning at daybreak. The justly execrated Cunning- 
ham, into whose charge Hale Avas committed, confined his prisoner 
in the green-house in the garden of Howe's headquarters, denying 
him pen and Bible — though later the young officer on guard 
loosed Hale's bonds and furnished him writing materials. He 
spent the niglit in writing his last messages to his family and his 
betrothed, and, when Cunningham at davbreak came to perform 
his acceptable task. Hale lianded him the letters and asked to have 
them forwarded to his friends. Cunningham opened the letters, 
read them through, tore them in pieces, and scattered them to tlie 
winds. 

A guard of British soldiers, with the negro hangman carrying a 
coil of rope, accompanied Cunningham who led Hale to Rutger's 
orchard and mounted him upon the rough pine coffin beside his 
open grave. 



DAUGHTERS OF THE A:MER[CAN REVOF.UTION. 



519 





A crowd of spectators had gatliered. The men glowered 
angrily and the women sobbed aloud. Cunningham cursed them 
into silence and tauntingly asked the prisoner for his dying speech 
and confession. Looking into the eyes of the pitying crowd Hale, 
his arms bound and with the rope around his neck, spoke the few 
w^ords which have made his name immortal, " I only regret that I 
have but one life to lose for my 
country ! " '' Swing the rebel 
off ! " yelled Cunningham, and 
Nathan Hale's short life of twenty- 
one years was ended. 

Upon the home in Coventry fell 
the shadow of a great sorrow. 
Unconscious of the honor which 
the future would accord him, the 
name of Nathan was never spoken 
there. Alice Ripley some years 
after married Mr. William Lau- 
rence of Hartford and made him 
an affectionate wnfe. She lived to 
a ripe old age, the honored friend 
of the best citizens of her city. 
One of her granddaughters de- 
scribes her as she appeared in her 
eighty-eighth year : " I never 
tired of gazing on her youthful 
complexion, her eyes — which 
retained their natural lustre — and 
ujion her hand and arm, wliich 
though shrunken somewhat from 
age, must in her younger days 
have been a lit study for a sculp- 
tor." A life-lonij friend writino- after her death said, " From 
my first acquaintance with her I had ever occasion to admire the 
calm and beautiful Christian spirit she uniformly exhibited. I 
never knew so faultless a character — so gentle, so kind." Those 
who stood around her dying bed heard the murmur of her last 
words, "Write to Nathan," and believed that the separation of 
over sixty years was ended. 




STATUE OF NATHAN HALE ON THE GROUNDS 

OF THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM, 

HARTFORD, CONN. 

(Hv courtesy of the Connecticut Mau;azine.) 



520 THE PATRON SATNTS OF CONNECTICUT CHAPTERS 

By the courtesy of the Connecticut Sons of the Revolution, it 
is the privilege of the Nathan Hale Memorial Chapter of East 
Haddam, 1). A. R., to hold its meetings in the historical Nathan 
Hale schoolhouse. Having served its original purpose many 
years, it was, in 1799, purchased by Capt. Elijah Attwcjod, who 
removed it to a new site and converted it into a dwelling house. 
It remained in the possession of his descendants one hundred 
years. In 1899, Judge Julius Attwood, its owner, knowing that 
"individuals die but corporations continue," presented the build- 
ing to the Sons of the Revolution through their representative, 
Mr. Richard H. Green of New York. The little red building was 
again removed and again presented, by the New York Sons of the 
Revolution to the C(jnnecticut Branch, who make it their head- 
quarters. 

On tile 6tli of June, 1900, the anniversarv of Hale's birth, thou- 
sands of spectators gathered in the little town of East Haddam 
for the dedicatory exercises. Ex-Governor Morgan G. Bulkley 
in accepting the trust for the Connecticut Sons presented also to 
the Connecticut Branch the surrounding acres which he had pur- 
chased and which are now opened to the citizens of East Had- 
dam, Governor Bulkley's nati\e town, as a park. 

After various changes the little red schoolhouse rests on 
a hill-top overlooking the blue Ccjnnecticut. The flag of the 
ccnintry floats at its door, and the graves of those who have 
defended the flag in their country's wars lie clustered in the 
valley beneath. 

Bertha Palmer Attwood. 



The authorities used in compiling this sketch were : 

Life of Captain Nathan Hale, by I. W. .Stuart ; The Two Spies, by Benson J. 
Lossino; ; Nathan Hale, by Frederick 11. Cogswell in Year Book, 1S97-99, Ct. 
S. A. R. ; The First Sacrifice of the Revolution, Charlotte M. Holloway in The 
Connecticut Magazine. 



NDEX 



Abbott, Abifjail, 79. 
Abel, Gen., 77. 
Abell, Experience, 57. 
Abercronibie, Gen., 480, 481. 
Adams, 75. 

Alice, 512-14, 516. 

E. B.,334. 

Elizabeth, 104. 

Mrs. Frank M., 323. 

Helen Redington, 456. 

John, 36, 148, 216. 

John Ouincy, 189. 

May Rislev, 323. 

Samuel, 7. 

Sarah, 512, 513. 

Widow, 512. 

Rev. William, 104. 
Adgate, Hannah, 136. 
Alden, Elizabeth, 3, 152. 

John, 3, 152. 

Priscilla, 3. 
Allen, Ethan, 251, 490. 

Nancy, 84. 
Allyn, Fitz John, 180. 

lane, 177. 

Mary, 180. 

Thomas, 177. 
Amherst, Gen., 107, 251. 
Anderson, John, 271. 
Andre, Major, 267, 271, 272, 

506. 
Andrews, 499. 

Alfred, 208. 

Gov., 44. 

Isaac, 288. 

Jesse, 288, 290. 

John, 288. 

Joseph, 288. 

Mrs. Julia M., 148. 

Lydia Root, 280, 2S6-290. 

Moses, 287, 290. 

Nathaniel, 287, 288." 

Samuel, 288. 



Andross, Edmund, 178. 
Andruss, Mr., 483. 
Anne, Oueen, 44. 
Arnold, Benedict, 106, 159, 
203, 267, 271, 272, 439, 

506, 507. 
Atkins, Josiah, 295. 
Attwood, Bertha Palmer, 520. 

Capt. Elijah, 520. 

Julius, 515, 520. 
Atwater, Asaph, 482, 483. 

Lydia, 180. 
Austin, Col. Aaron, 495. 
Avered, Andrew, 493. 

Diana, 493, 494. 

Hannah Hinman, 492, 493. 

Capt. Josiah. 492. 

Noble, 493. 
Avery, Deborah, 137, 138. 

Ebenezer, 368. 

Elizabeth, 138. 

Rev. Ephraim, 136-138. 

Rev. John, 136, 137. 

Ruth, 137, 138. 

Septimus, 137. 

William, 358. 

Backus, Eunice, 15. 

Badger, Mr., 292. 

Bailey, Anna Warner, 3 5 3-364. 

Elijah, 355, 358, 362-364. 
Baker, Dr., 13S. 
Balcom, Juror, 490. 
Baldwin, 505. 

Freelove, 341. 

Isabel, 291. 

John, 341. 

Col. Jonathan, 291, 292, 
294, 295, 297. 

Joseph, 2gr. 

Mary, 341. 

Melicent, 292, 294, 295, 297. 

Phineas, 340. 



Baldwin, Rebecca (Baldwin), 
340. 

Richard, 211, 291. 

Sarah, 211. 

Judge Simeon, 40. 

Simeon E., no. 
Bancroft, George, 419. 
Barber, John W., 443, 445. 
Barber, Nathaniel, 482, 483. 
Barlow, Joel, 75, 182, 210. 

215. 
Barnes, Capt., 309. 
Bartlett, Marietta, 84. 

S. F., 331, 332. 
Beach, Eliakim, 161, 163, 165. 

Fisk, 486. 

Martha Edwards, 152, 164, 
172. 

Mindweli, 48. 

Mrs. Noah, 484. 
Beebe, Elizabeth, 498, 499. 

Col. Bezaleel, 49S. 
Beers, Isaac, 123. 
Belden, Ruth, 21. 

Col. Thomas, 21, 432. 
Bell, Mr., 432, 433. 
Bellows, James, 469. 
Bemis, 483, 484. 
Benedict, 499. 

Capt. Benjamin, 497. 

Capt. Daniel, 318. 

Hannah, 316, 317, 320, 423. 

Thomas, 315, 423. 
Benjamin, Mary Eddye, 364. 
Benhani, Col., 361. 
Bennett, Charlotte B., 42. 

Daniel, 227. 

Sarah, 227. 
Benton, Andrew, 290. 

Samuel, 290. 

Sarah, 290. 
Betts, Charlotte Elizabeth, 
446. 



522 



INDEX. 



Betts, Capt. Hezekiah, 421. 

Juliette, 421. 

Capt. Stephen, 420. 
BidwcU, Clara E., 411. 

Ozias, 469. 
Bigclow, Frederick, 482, 4S3. 
Bingham, 476. 
Bird, Rev. Samuel, 107. 
Birgc, John, 4S2, 483. 
Bishop, Mrs. A. T., 312. 

Ellen Kilbourne, 16. 

Lieut., 165. 

Samuel, 107. 
Bisscll, Benjamin, 484. 

Ebenezer, 482, 483. 

Eunice, 470. 

Hezekiah, 305, 321-324. 

John, 322. 

Mabel, 470. 

Mary, 241. 

Ozias, 469, 470. 

Return, 282, 283. 

Russell, 470. 

Sabra, 423. 

Sabra Trumbull, 305, 321- 

323. 

Samuel, 241. 
Blakeslee, Abi, 396. 

Abram, 395. 

Experience, 395. 

Frances E., 402. 

Jude, 395. 

Thomas, 395. 
Bolton, Charles Knowlcs, 
176. 

Frances Sheldon, 102. 
Booth, Jane, 340. 
Bosswell, Capt., ill. 
Bostwick, Alice C, 42. 
Bouton, W. S., 420. 
Bowers, Barbara, 222. 

George, 222. 

John, 212, 221, 222. 

Nathaniel, 222. 
Boyd, John, 492. 
Bradford, Alice, 104. 

Hannah, 331. 

Gov. William, 103, 104, 117, 

331. 
Brainerd, David, 46. 

Hezekiah, 46. 
Brewster, Anne (Andros), 
325. 
Daniel, 349. 
Hannah, 349. 
John, 138, 344, 349, 350. 
Jonathan, 344, 348, 349. 



Brewster, Rev. Nathaniel, 
342-352. 

Sarah Ludlow, 344, 350. 

Simon, 325. 

Timothy, 349. 

William, 325, 344, 346, 348, 
352. 
Briant, Elizabeth, 466. 
Bridgeum, Mar}', 315. 
Brintnall, Dorothy, 331. 

Esther, 331. 

Thomas, 331. 

Rev. William, 331, 332. 
Bronson, 499. 

Caroline, 288. 

Ebenezer, 291. 

Isaac, 291. 

John, 291. 

Lieut., 497. 

Mary, 291, 292. 
Brooks, John J., 488. 

Jonathan, 361. 

Mary E., 488. 
Brown, Eleazer, 128. 

Ireanus, 465. 

John, 487, 488. 

Martha Whittlesey, 50S. 

Peter, 488. 

Stoddart, 394. 
Bruen, John, 340. 

Margaret, 341. 

Mary. 341. 

Obadiah, 341. 

Robert de, 340. 
Bryant, Ebenezer, 470. 

Lois, 470. 

Samuel, 469. 

Timothy, 469. 
Buckland, David, 469. 

Elisha, 469, 470. 

Elizabeth, 470. 

George, 470. 
Buckminster, Zeruiah, 331. 
Budd, Isaac W., 192. 
Buel, Mercy, 248. 

Peter, 24b. 
Bugbee, Sarah Preston, 57. 
Bulkle}-, Ann Francis, 217. 

Mrs. Henry Thorp, 337. 

John, 217. 

Morgan G. , 520. 

Rebekah W. Pomeroy, 337. 
Bull, Miss H., 24. 
Buncc, Charles, 464. 
Burgoyne, Gen., 23, 25, 37, 

181, 30S, 491, 494. 
Burke, Edmund, too. 



Burleson, Roberta H., 327. 
Burnham, Sophia L. B., 327. 
Burr, Aaron, 77, 332. 

Andrew, 67. 

Ebenezer, 169. 

Eunice Dennie, 55, 65-78, 

331- 

John, 482, 483. 

Landlord, 490. 

Mehitabel, 4S6, 487. 

Peter, 65. 

Reuben, 487. 

Thaddeus, 55, 66-78. 

Mrs. Thaddeus, 155. 
Burroughs, Desire, 413. 
Burts, Elnathan, 367. 
Bushnell, Horace, 322. 
Butler, 382. 

John, 396. 

Col. Zabulon, 394. 

Cadwell, Matthew, 469. 
Caldwell, John, 29. 
Calhoun, John C, 237. 
Calkins. Miss, 360. 
Camp, Abel, 297. 

Abiathar, 48. 

Charles L., no. 

Samuel, 44. 
Campbell, Maria, 230. 
Carey, Lydia, 331. 
Carleton, Gen., in. 

Sir Guy, 440. 
Carlton, Edward, 128. 
Carpenter, Alice, 104. 
Carrington, Dr., 282. 
Carter, Deborah, 31S, 320. 

Ebenezer, 316-318, 320. 

Elizabeth, 318. 

Hannah Benedict, 305, 315- 
320, 423. 

John, 305, 315-320. 

Mercy, 318. 

Polly, 318, 320. 

Rachel, 318. 

Sally, 318, 320. 

Samuel, 316-318, 320. 
Carver, Governor, 104. 
Case, Anne, 465. 

Mary, 243. 

Richard, 243. 
Cass, General, 360. 
Castellux, Marquis, 7. 
Caulkins, Miss, 93, 95. 
Chandler, Parker C., 224. 
Chai)in, Misses, 108. 
Chapman, Captain, 71, 73. 



tNOKX. 



5: 



Chaucer, Geoft'rey, 38. 
Cliaiincey, Col. IClilui, 51. 

Rev. Nathaniel, 46, 47, 49. 
Cheney, Alice Barrett, 477. 

Benjamin, 463. 

Electa Woodbridge, 477. 

Mary, 470. 

Timothy, 463, 465, 466, 469, 
470. 
Chester, Captain John, 177, 
26S, 502. 

Sarah, 177. 
Chichester, Rachel, 517. 
Child, Frank Samuel, 78. 
Clap, Mr., Ill, 115. 

Mary, no, 118. 

Mary Whiting, 104, 117-124. 

President, log. 

Richard, 117. 

Stephen, 104. 

Rev. Thomas, 103, 104, 117. 
Clarendon, Lord, 260. 
Clark, Daniel, 183. 

David, 124. 

Elizabeth, 226, 288. 

Hannah, 226. 

Martha, 178. 

Martha Pitkin \Volcott,i84. 

Rebekah, 310. 

William, 226. 
Clarke, Hannah Griswold, 
225, 226. 

Hannah Peck, 225. 

Rev. lames Freeman, 231, 

234,' 237- 

Dr. John, 413. 

John Hopkins, 413. 

Samuel C, 234. 

Susan Carrington, 403, 412- 
416. 

Thomas, 225. 

William, 225. 
Clarkson, Rev. William, 259, 

263. 
Clinton, George W., 263. 

Governor, 144. 

Sir Henry, 159, 160, 203. 
Coe, Kate Foote, 416. 

Oliver, Jr., 495. 

Seth, 482, 4S3. 

Tamar, 48. 
Cogswell, Anna Whittlesey, 
502-508. 

Edward, 503. 

Frederick H., 520. 

Sarah, 508. 

William. 503, 504, 507, 508. 



Cole, Abigail, 193. 

James, 193, 194, 390, 39T. 

Jotiu, 193, 194, 196, 197. 

Katherine, 377. 

Mary, 198. 

Matthew, 189, 193, 194, 198. 

Ruth, 189, 193-195, 197, 
198, 206. 

Stephen, 198. 
Collins, Capt. Daniel, 180. 

John, roS, 109. 

Lorraine, 180. 
Colton, John. 177. 
Comstock, Cornelia C, 320. 
Congdon, Mrs. Katharine 

Fanning, 326. 
Cook, Captain, 369. 

Lemuel, 291. 

Mary, 297. 
Cooley, Daniel, 177. 
Cooper, J. Fenimore, 94. 
Copley, John S., 77, 93. 
Cornwallis, Lord, 215. 
Cowles, Amy, 2S8. 

Esther, 285. 

James, 483, 484. 

Hannah, 285. 

John, 282, 285. 

"Martha, 307. 

Samuel, 282, 285. 

Captain Soloman, 307. 
Crabb, Goodman, 432. 

Goodwife, .}32. 
Crane, Deacon, 47. 
Crow, Deborah, 136. 
Cummings, Doctor, 414. 

Mrs., 414. 
Cunningham, 518, 519. 
Curtis, Eleazer Davis, 301. 

Henr}' Dwight, 301. 

Joseph, 301. 

Maria Amelia, 301. 

Sibbil, 301. 

Virginia Hubbard, 115. 



Daggett, Piesident, 215. 
Dana, James, 451. 

Mrs. James D., 157. 
Daniels, Abbie Page, 135. 
Danielson, James, 303, 304. 

Kate E., 304. 

Lucy, 304. 

Mary, 304. 

Samuel, 303. 

Sarah Williams, 279, 303, 
304. 



Danielson, William, 279, 303, 

304. 
Darling, Jedediah, Jr., 469. 
Davenport, 430. 

Abraham, 433, 442-444. 

General, 51. 

Rev. John, 43, 225, 431, 
432. 

Mrs. John, 446. 

Major, 435. 

Martha, 154. 
Davies, Rev. T. F., 335. 
Davis, Matthev/ L., 332. 

Phoebe, 301. 
Dawes, Major, 59. 
Day, Jeremiah, 40. 
Deane, Silas, 50, 75, 143. 
Decatur, Commodore, 359. 
Deming, Henry C, 121, 124. 

Hon. Henry L., 148. 
Denison, Ebenezer, 369, 370. 
Dennie, Eunice, 65. 
Dennison, Col. Nathan, 394. 
Denton, Rev. Richard, 431. 
Devotion, Rev. Ebenezer, 137. 
Dewey, Nathaniel, 469. 
Dexter, John, 12S. 

Richard, 128. 
Dibell, Thomas, 480. 
Dickenson, John, 171, 172. 

Mary Silliman, 171, 172. 
Dimon, Colonel, 77. 
Dodge, Governor, 301. 
Dolphin, 497. 
Douglas, Col. John, 204, 295, 

303- 
Downer, Avery, 357. 

Dr. Joshua, '357, 361. 
Downs, Rebecca Peters, 369. 
Drake, Job, 177. 

Sarah, 177, 180. 
Dudley, Abigail, 300. 

Beriah, 480. 
Dunbar, Rev. Samuel, 33. 
Dunster, Elizabeth, 331. 
Dwight, 215. 

Abiah, 300. 

John, 299. 

Nathaniel, 300. 

Captain Samuel, 299. 

Sil)bil, 299, 300. 

Colonel Simeon, 29S, 299. 

Pres. Tnnothy, 75, 147. 

Mrs. Timothy, 40. 
Dyer, Mr., 98.' 

Colonel Eliphalet. 57. 



524 



jxi)i;x. 



Earle, 174, 274, 277. 
Earl, R., 80. 

Eaton, Governor, 223, 225. 
Edwards, Ann, 193. 

Jonathan, 38, 193. 

Rev. Richard, 193. 

William, 193. 
Eels, Lieut. Jeremiah B., 318. 
Eggleston, Begat, 241. 

Sarah, 241. 
Elderkin. 98. 

Aime, 63. 

Alfred, 63. 

Anne, 63. 

Anne Wood, 55-64. 

Bela, 63. 

Charlotte, 62-64. 

Uyer White, 61. 

General Jedediah, 55-64. 

John 3<-l,"57. 

Judith, 63. 

Lora, 63. 

Vine, 63. 
Eldridge, Miss, 465. 
Ellery, John, 336. 

Mary," 366. 
Ellsworth, Abigail, 82-87. 

Abigail Wolcott, 55, 79-90. 

Delia, 84, 88, 89. 

Erastus, 186. 

Frances, 84, 88. 

Henry Leavitt, 83, 84, 86. 

Martin, 84-86, 88. 

Mary Lyman, 186. 

Oliver, 55, 79-89. 

Mrs. Oliver, 82, 83. 

Theodore, 192. 

William, 83, 84, 86. 

William Webster, 80, 83. 

William Wolcott, 84, 86. 
Eliot, Rev. Andrew, 65, 77, 
169. 

Rev. Joseph, 44. 
Elmer, Kate L. , 54. 
Elwood, John, 332. 
Eh', Eunice, 180. 
Endicott, Gov. John, 346. 
Eno, Mrs. Chauncey E., 242. 

Dr. Henry, 242. 
Evans, Abiathar, 469. 

Moses, 470, 473. 

Moses, Jr., 473. 

Mrs. Moses, 470. 

Samuel, Jr., 469. 
Evarts, Jeremiah, 40. 

William M., 40. 
Evens, Mar}', 466. 



Everitt, Dr. Josiah, 492. 
Nelly, 492. 

Fairchiid, A. B., 163. 

Zipporah, 48. 
Fanning, Anna. 325. 

Anne Brewster, 305, 325- 

327- 

Betsey, 325. 

Capt. Charles, 305, 324-327. 

Frederick, 325. 

Franklin, 325. 

Henry, 3^5- 

John, 325. 

Maria, 325. 

Patrick, 325. 

Sophia, 325. 

Thomas, 325. 
Feaks, Robert, 447. 
Fergurson, Laura A., 452. 
Fessenden, Mrs. O. G., 446. 
Filley, Isaac, 482, 483. 
Fillmore, President, 413. 
Finch, Mrs. Harry Hall, 429. 
Fish, Hortense (Gallup), 371. 

Rev. Joseph, 152, 158, 16S, 
171, 172. 

Mrs. Joseph, 168, 171. 

Rebecca, 171. 
Fisher, Professor, 152. 
Fiske, John, 144, 201, 203, 

237- 
Fitch, Thomas. 240. 
Flagg, Gerard, 170. 
Flint, Joshua, 470. 

Sarah, 470. 
Floyd, Ann, 263. 

Catherine, 259, 263. 

Eliza, 263. 

Hannah, 263. 

Hon. John G., 263. 

Mary, 263. 

Nicoll, 262, 263. 

Richard, 259. 260, 262. 

Tabitha, 262. 

Gen. William, 256-278. 
Forman, Gen. John, 36S. 
Fowler, Prof. Henry, 406. 
Fox, Anne, 341. 
Francis, Mary, 282. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 7, 36, 75, 
216, 266. 

William, 266. 
French, Anna Johnson, 352. 

David, 352. 
Frisbie. Benjamin, 482, 483. 

Elisha, 483, 484. 



Frisbie, Judah, 295. 

Levi, 390. 
Frost, L. D., 309. 
Fuller, Edward, 483, 484. 

Judge, 232. 

Sarah, 232. 
Fyler, Ambrose, 432, 433. 

Gage, Gen., 181. 
Gaines, Sarah, 470. 

Simon, 469, 470. 
Gale, Dr., 24. 
Gardiner, Deborah Avery, 
138, 139- 

Hannah, 138, 139. 

John, 138, 139. 

L3'on, 262. 

Septimus, 138, 145. 
Garth, Gen., 423. 
(jates. Gen., iSi, 216, 318. 
Gay, Col. Fisher, 200, 245. 
Gaylord, Aaron, 376-394. 

Katherine, 353, 375-394- 

Lemuel, 377, 383, 386, 388, 

39°- 
Lorena, 377, 383, 384, 3S6, 

387, 390, 391- 

Phebe, 377, 378, 3S6, 390. 

Sabra, 321. 
Geer, Eleanor, 470. 

Sergt. Elihu, 470. 
George H., 189, 240. 
George HI., 179, i8r, 189, 
193, 244, 262, 266, 2S9, 
452. 
Germain, Lord. 440. 
Gillett, Capt. Jonah, 245. 
Gilman, Soloman, Jr., 469. 
Gilmore, Miss, 416. 
Glover, Gen., 203. 
Goff, David, 495. 
Goffe, William, 211. 
Gold, Col., 77. 

Major Nathan, 347. 

Mr., 490. 
Goodale, Sabra Bisscll, 323. 

Walter, 323. 
Goode, Mrs. G. Browne, 54. 
Goodrich, Rev., 50. 

Rev. Chaunce\% log. 

David, 469. 
Gorham, John, 104. 

Temperance, 104. 
Grant, Roswell, 497. 
Green, Richard II., 520. 
Greene, Gen. Nathaniel, 98, 

144, 215, 216. 



INDEX. 



525 



Gregory, Capt. faljcz, 424. 

Mere)', 424. 
Griswold, Abigail, 245. 

Asa, 472. 

Elizabeth, 470. 

Lieut. Francis, 225. 

George, 465. 

Gov., gS. 

Hannah, 225. 

Isabelle Wallace, 479. 

Capt. John, 2S2. 

Lydia, 252. 

>iatthe\v, iSo, 1S2, 225. 

Ozias, 282. 

Roger, 225. 

Capt. Shubael, 478-489. 

White, 470, 472, 473. 
(jiiernsey, Ebenezer, 50. 

Katherine, 47, 50. 
Gunn, Elizabeth, 344. 

Hale, Edward Everett, ri6, 
512, 515. 

Elizabeth, 512. 

Enoch, 512 

John, 512, 513. 

Nathan, gS, 230, 297, 438, 
509-520. 

Richard, 511-513. 
Halford, Dorothy, 340. 

Sir Thomas. 340. 
Hall, John, 46. 
Hallet, Joseph, 265. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 267. 
Hancock, John, 65, 67, 74. 
75, 83, 95, 155, 269. 

Mrs. John, 39. 
Hanford, Levi, 319. 
Harden, Col., 495. 
Harding, Capt. Seth, 94. 
Hardy, Commodore, 359. 
Harmer, Gen., 495. 
Harris, Gabriel, 93. 

Temperance, 93. 
Harrison, William Henry, 

189, 234. 
Hart, Abigail, 19S. 

Anne Amelia, 411. 

Asahel, ig8, igg. 

Cypriaii, 191, 199. 

John, 197, 19S, 405. 

Mary, 194, 198, 199. 

^Lary C. 44O. 

Mehitabel, 194, 195. 

Nathaniel, 197-199. 

Mrs. N. R., 445, 446. 

Noahdiah, 19S, igg. 



Hart, Ruth Cole, 187-208. 

Samuel, 405-407. 

Mrs. Samuel A., 411. 

Sarah, 285. 

Selah, 187-208. 

Stephen, 193-197, 208, 282, 
285. 

Thomas, 194, 196, 197. 
Hartwell, Elizalieth, 35. 

Dea. Joseph, 35. 
Hatch, Moses, 495-497. 
Hatfield, Col., 319. 
Hathorne, Anne, 127. 

Major, 127. 
Hawkins, Anthony, 194. 

Joseph, 344, 350. 

Robert, 344. 

Ruth, 194. 

Sarah Ludlow, 350. 
Hawley, Abiah, 177. 

Capt., 165, 167. 

Joseph R., 42. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 127. 
Haxtun, Capt. Milton, 297. 

Mrs., 341. 
Ha3'den, Sarah Martin, 64. 
Haydon, David, 483, 484. 
Haynes, Hannah, 290. 

Gov. John, 28. 
Hempstead, Abigail, 365, 366. 

Robert, 365, 366. 

Stephen, 368. 
Hewlett, Mr., 167. 
Hickox, Frances Eliot, 508. 
Higginson, Francis, 38. 
Hill, E. J., 423. 

Mrs. E. J., 423. 
Hills, Seth, 494, 498. 

William, 194. 

Zimri. 48. 
Hine, Mehitable, 296. 
Hinman, 107, 193. 

Capt., 495. 
Hinsdale, Lydia, 407. 
Hoadly, 36. 
Hoar, George F., 37, 40, 42. 

Samuel, 40. 
Holcombe, Mrs. John M., 29. 
Hollister, 446. 

Josiah, 470, 471. 

Judge, 345. 

Mary, 470. 
Holloway, Charlotte M , 520. 
Hooker, Abigail, 198. 

Col., 285. 

John, 198, 199, 405. 

Mary, 405. 



Hooker, Noadiah, 200. 

Rev. Samuel, 405, 406. 

Rev. Thomas, 28, 43, 193, 
195, 197, 405, 459, 502. 
Hopkins, Amey, 413. 

Commodore, 94. 

Esek, 403, 413. 

Gov., 225. 

John, 341. 

Lois, 344. 

Samuel, 137. 

Stephen, 2gi, 413. 
Hoskins, Joseph, 494. 
Houlton, Capt. Benj., 128. 
How, Sarah, 466. 
Howard, Gen. O. O., 456. 
Howe, Gen., 245, 518. 

Isaac, 455. 

Lord, 4S0-482. 
Howland, Desire, 104. 

John, 103, 104. 
Hoyt, Goold, 422. 

Mrs. Goold, 421. 

Jonathan, 433. 

Joseph, 433. 
Hubbard, Mr., 414. 

Mrs., 170, 413-415. 

Henrietta W., 152, 153, 170. 

Samuel, 413. 
Hughes, Samuel, log. 

Mrs. Samuel, 109. 
Hull, Abraham Fuller, 234. 

Alfred, 236. 

Amos Gift, 296. 

Col., 232. 

David, 227, 236. 

Elizabeth Clarke, 209, 224- 
237. 

Isaac, 224, 227, 233, 234. 

Dr. John, 226. 

Capt. Joseph, 209, 225-237. 

Levi, 227, 234. 

Dr. Nimrod, 296. 

Richard, 226. 

Samuel, 209, 227, 233. 

Sarah, 226-228. 

William, 209, 227-231. 234- 

237- 
Humaston, Abi Blakeslee, 
353- 395-402. 

Bennet, 400. 

Caleb, 396, 400, 402. 

Jesse, 396, 398, 400, 402. 

Morris, 400, 402. 

Sydney, 400. 
Humphrey, Capt., 350. 

Col., 75- 



:;26 



IXDEX. 



HumphrcAs, Daniel, 209-223, 

243- 

David, 209-223. 

Eliiah, 209-223. 

Esther, 247. 

John, 209-223. 

Michael, 212. 

Samuel, 489. 

Sarah, 213. 

Sarah Riggs, 209-213. 
Hunter, Priscilla, 300. 

William, 300. 
Huntington, 98,433.435,438, 

443^ 445- 
Faith (Trumbull), 1 1. 
Gen., 51. 

Gov. Samuel, 24c). 
Rev. Dr., 512. 
Hurlburt, Joseph, 501. 

Inman, Ralph, 143. 

Irving, Wasiiington, 2, 126, 

44^', 5'>7. 
Ive.s, J. .Moss, 46. 

Jacklin, Hannah, 471. 

John, 470, 471. 
Jackson, Andrew, 1S9, 360, 
361. 

Lieu I., 165. 
James, Julia A. DuHois, 352. 
Jameson, Lieut. -Col., 272. 
Ja}', John, 7. 
Jefferson, Thomas. 7, 36, 189, 

216, 2iq, 220, 251). 
Jennings, Isaac, 72. 

Jacob, 423. 

Mrs. Jacob, 422. 
Johnson, 98. 

Anna, 352. 

Benajah, 344, 350. 

Ebenezer, 344. 

Elizabetli, 344. 

Isaac, 343, 344, 350-2. 

Jeremiah, 344. 

Mercy, 48. 

Capt. Nathaniel, 350. 

Peter, 344. 

Col. Richard M., 360, 361. 

Dr. Samuel, iSi. 

Sarah Brewster, 350. 

Sarah Ludlr)w, 351, 352. 
Jones, Capt., 165. 

Ebenezer, 435. 

Hannah, 262. 

Isabella, 259. 

Judge Thomas, 165-168. 



Jones, Mrs., 167. 

William, 259. 
Judd, Lydia. 2S8. 

Mary, 282. 

Mrs. Minerva P., 402. 

Rev. Reuben, 501. 

Thomas, 194. 
Judson, Birdie, 192. 

Keeney, Alexander, Jr., 469. 

Asahel, 470. 

Mabel, 470. 

Richard, 470. 

Sarah, 470. 

Theodore, 469. 
Kellogg, Dorothy, 502. 

Hannah, 2S7. 

Hannah (Benton), 290. 
Kelsey. Elisha, 482, 4S3. 

Thomas, 482, 483. 
Kent, Elihu, 279, 298-302. 

John, 300. 

Samuel, 300. 

Sibbil Dwight,279, 298-302. 
King, Helen M., 302. 
Kirtland, Rev. Daniel, 358. 
Knapp, Usal, 441. 442. 
Knowlton, Col., 517. 
Knox, Gen. Henry, 7, 215, 

324- 
Mrs. J. H., 278. 
Kosciusko, Gen., 216. 



Ladd, Ida Browning, 327. 

Lafayette, Gen., 7, 25, 75, 
227, 264, 276, 308, 323, 
326, 360, 408, 430, 444, 

45^1- 
Lamb, Col., 77. 
Langdon, Rodney, 309. 
Earned, Ellen D., 131, 140. 

Miss, 63, 64, 140. 
Latham, Albert, 360. 
Lathrop, Mrs. Charlotte 

Grav, 64. 

H. C.,6i. 
Laurence, William, jk). 
Lauzun, Duke, 7. 
Law, Gov., 179. 

Judge, 36. 
Leach, John, 12S. 
Leavitt, Emily Wilder, 304. 
Ledyard, Ann, 373, 374. 

Charles, 373. 

Col., 358. 

Deborah Youngs, 366. 



Ledyard, Fanny, 353,365-374- 
George, 366. 
John, 365, 366, 369, 374. 
Mary, 368. 
Peter Y., 373. 
Sarah, 374, 463. 
Thomas, 366. 
Col. William, 36S, 370, 

372-374. 
Lee, Col., 283, 2S5. 

Gen., 143, 433, 434, 433, 

439- 

John, 196. 

Marie, 196, 197. 

Mary, 194. 
Leete, Gideon, 48. 
Leffingwell. Dr. Albert, 57. 
Lewis, Ellen Tuttle, 314. 

Isaac Booth, 292, 294. 

Melicent, 294, 297. 

Melicent Baldwin, 294. 

Phebe, 288. 

Polly, 2S8. 
Lincoln, Gen., 236. 
Littell, Rev. W. H., 349. 

Ruth, 135. 
Livingstone. 36. 

William Farrand, 135. 
Lockwood, Capt., 165. 

Major Ebenezer, 445. 

Hannah Smith, 445. 

Isaac, 319. 

William R., 426. 
Loomis, John, 323. 

Josiah, 469. 

Timothy, 482, 483. 
Lord, Dr. John, 411. 

John Ha\^nes, 28. 

Rebecca, 28. 

Richard, 21. 
Lossing, Benson J., 237, 520. 
Lothrop, Deborah (Crow), 
136. 

Rev. John, 136. 

Samuel, 136. 
Lounsbury, Gov., 456. 
Loveland, Abigail, 497. 
Lowell, Hon. John, 148. 
Ludlow, Anne, 348. 

Cornelia. 348. 

Sir Edmund, 347. 

Gabriel, 348. 

George, 347, 348. 

Sir Henry, 347. 

Jonathan, 348. 

Joseph, 348. 

Mary, 348. 



IXDEX. 



527 



Ludlow, Roger, 343-352. 

Sarah, 342-352. 
L3-man, Benjamin, 463. 

Macon, Nathaniel, 36. 
Madison, Mrs. Dolly, 414. 

Pres. James, 189, 220, 236, 
237/259, 276, 414. 
Marlboro, Earl, 225. 
Marsh, Allen, 470. 

Elizabeth, 498. 

Mabel, 470. 
Marshall, Chief Justice, 144. 
Marvin, Ozias, 419. 
Mashupano (Indian), 198. 
Masters, Capt. James, 236. 
Mather, Cotton," 482, 483,487. 

Dr. Moses, 436, 437. 

Zilpah, 487. 
Matthews, Thomas, 4S2, 483. 
McKee, Alexander, 465. 

Dorothy. 470. 
I Sergt. Joseph, 469, 470. 
' Mabel," 467. 

Robert, 467, 469, 470. 

Ruth, 470. 
McLean, Hon. Geo. P., 1S6. 
McLellan, Dr. F. M., 234. 

Isaac Hull, 234. 
Mead, Abigail H., 453, 455. 

Anna, 452. 
I Deliverance, 453, 455. 

General, 453. 

Huldah, 455. 

Col. John, 205, 31S, 452, 

453" 

Louise, 453. 

Mary, 452, 453. 

Oliver, 450. 

Susan, 453. 
Meeker, Helen, 124. 
Meigs, Return Jonathan. 54. 
Miles, General, 456. 

Capt. Isaac, 339. 

John, 109. 

Susan Carrington, 413. 
Millard, Andrus, 470. 

Mabel, 470. 
Miller, Jonathan, 4S2, 483. 

Susie, 446. 
Mills, Edward, 355-357- 

Hannah, 355, 357, 35S. 

Rev. Samuel, 214. 

Sarah Humphrey, 214. 
.Miner, Doctor, 407. 
Monioe, President, 189, 360. 
Montcalm, Gen., 480-482. 



Montgomery, General, 24S. 
Moody, Reverend, 179. 
Moore, Abigail, 366. 

Abigail H., 192. 

Abigail Ledyard, 367, 369. 

Emily H., 192. 

Julia, 366. 

Marv, 198. 

Dr. Micah. 366. 

Oliver, 192. 

Phoebe, 366, 369. 
Morris, Com. R. V., 332. 
Mott, 490. 
Muirson, 273. 
Mullens, Priscilla, 3, 152. 
Murphy, Ann A., 371. 
Murray, Noah, 390. 

Sylvia, 390. 
Muzzy, Florence, E. D., 375, 
394 • 

Neale, Levi, 309. 
Neely, Bishop, 277. 

Mary F. D., 260, 277. 
Newberry, Perry, 87. 
Newbury, Mary, 180. 

Captain Roger, 180. 
Newell, Asahel, 311, 312. 

Charles, 311. 

Diadamia, 311. 

Hannah, 310, 311. 

Lucy, 311. 

Lydia, 282. 

Aiark, 311, 312. 

Mary, i8g, 194, 19S. 

Mary Hart, 194. 

Samuel, 194, 311. 

Solomon, 311, 312. 

Thomas, 194, 208. 
Newton, Hannah, 242. 

Roger, 197. 
Niccola, Colonel, 216. 
Nicoll, Annys, 260. 

John, 260, 278. 

Margaret, 260-262. 

Col. Mathias, 260. 

William, 260, 261. 
Nichols, Isaac, 226. 

Mary, 226. 
North, Louise McCoy, 53. 
Norton, Alice, 411. 

Lewis M., 487. 

Oliver, 486. 

Ruth, 282. 

Ruth H., iq2. 
Noyes, Rev. James, 154. 

Rev. John, 152-154. 



Noyes, John, 171, 172. 
Rev. Joseph, 153, 172. 
Joseph F., 170. 
Mary Fish, 153, 154. 

O'Connor, James E., 296. 
Ogden, Rev. J. C, 106, 118. 
Olcott, Irena, 470. 

John, 464. 

josiah, jr., 469. 

Mistress, 475. 

Nathaniel, 470. 

Thomas, 464. 
Olmsted, Rebekah, 194. 
Orcutt, Samuel, iiS. 
Osborne, Capt. Joseph, 235. 
Otis, James, 75. 

Mary, 104. 
Owen, John, 247. 

Rosetta, 247. 

Pabodie, Priscilla, 3. 

William, 3. 
Paine, Grandma, 491. 
Palmer, Edmund, 144. 

Harriet Trumbull, 364. 
Parker, Capt., 350. 

Sarah, 225. 

Susannah, 225. 
Parris, Rev. Samuel, 127. 
Parsons, General, 271. 
Patrick, Daniel, 447. 
Paulding, 271. 
Peabody, Rebecca, 152. 
Peale, Rembrandt, 235. 
Pease, Nelly, 492. 

Capt. Samuel, 492. 

T. H., 109. 
Peck, Hannah, 225. 

Capt. Henry, 297. 

Katherine L., 297. 

Joseph, 225. 

Martha, 282. 

William, 225. 
Pelton, Mrs. W. H., 29. 
Pennoyer, Lieut. John, 476. 
Perkins, Jane Richards, 100. 

Mrs. W. S. C, 16. 
Perley, Elizabeth P. P., 131, 

13 5- 

Francis, 12S. 

Thomas, 12S, 130. 
Perry, Mrs. Gurdon, 334. 
Peters, Fanny Ledyard, 370. 

Richards, 369, 370. 
Pettibone, Abigail, 241-243. 

John, 241. 



528 



INDEX. 



Pcttibone, Mary, 241. 

Sarah, 241. 
Phelps, 4(_)0. 

AViigail, 241-255. 

Alinira Lincoln, 406. 

David, 239-255. 

Elisha, 239-255. 

George, 242. 

George Dwight, 254. 

Guy, 254. 

Hector, 254. 

jane Smith, 255. 

Jefferx', 254. 

Jeffer}' O., 245. 

John S., 253. 

Joseph, 242, 243. 

Judith Bigclow, 499. 

Lynde, 390. 

Noah, 238, 239, 242-255. 

Noah Amherst, 243, 244, 
249, 254. 

Oliver Cromwell, 247. 

Rachel, 243. 

William, 242. 

William Walter, 247. 
Phillips, Capt. George, 104. 
Pierson, Abraham, 44. 

Hannah, 514. 
Pill, Mrs., 349. 
Pitkin, Dorothy, 470. 472,473, 

Martha, 175-177, 1S3. 

Mrs., 104. 

Richard, 469-47 t, 475. 

Richard, Jr., 471, 476. 

Roger, I7"5. 

William, 175. 
Piatt, Howard, 341. 

James, 263. 
Pomerov, Eunice Belden, 24. 

Ralph, 24. 
Pope, Col., 456. 

Hannah, 128, 130, 131. 

Joseph, 130. 

Mehitable, 130. 
Popham, Sir Francis, 347. 
Porter, 193. 

Ansel, 297. 

Daniel, 295, 296. 

Elizabeth Hathorn, 127. 

Emily M., 296. 

Israel, 127. 

John, 127. 

Joseph, igS, 199. 

Marv, 127. 

Mary E. H., 90. 

Mehitable (Hine), 296. 



Porter, Mellicent (Baldwin), 
279, 291-297. 

Phineas, 279, 291-297. 

Rachel, 282, 2S5. 

Robert, igb. 

Sarah, 196, 197. 

Susan N., 313. 

Thomas, 196, 197, 282, 285, 
296. 

Truman, 296. 
Pratt, Isaac, 4S7. 
Prescott, Benjamin, 38. 

John, 38. 

Rebecca, 35, 38. 

William, 38, 142. 

William H., 38. 
Prichard, Sarah, 292, 295,297, 
" Prissy," 107. 
Pulsifer, N. T., 323. 
Putnam, Rev. Aaron, 13S. 

Anne, 128. 

Mrs. Avery Gardiner. 139- 
141. 

Bartholomew, 12S. 

Daniel, 130. 

David, 128, 130. 

Deborah A., 125, 136-14S. 

Douglas, 129. 

Eben, 135. 

Elizabeth, 12S, 130. 

Elizabeth Porter, 125-135. 

Eunice, 12S, 130. 

Frederic Ward, 129. 

George Haven, 129. 

George Palmer, 129. 

Hannah, 130. 

Henry, 12S. 

Herbert, 129. 

Huldah, 128. 

Israel, 7, 23, 125-14S, 158, 
iSi, 215, 323, 341, 434. 
447-450, 454- 456, 474, 
504. 505. 

Jethro, 128. 

John, 127. 

Jonathan, 128. 

Joseph, 127. 

Mary, 128. 

Mehitable, 12S, 130. 

Molly, 130. 

Nathan, 128. 

Perley, 128. 

Peter Schuj'ler, 130, 139. 

Rachel, 12S'. 

Sarah, 128. 

Thomas, 127. 

William, 128. 



Pyle, Elizabeth, 347. 
Sir Gabriel, 347. 
Jane, 347. 

Ouincy, 75. 

Dorothy, 67, 155. 

Read, Sarah Fuller, 228, 229. 
Redington, John, 450-452. 
Relyea, Rev. B. J., 334. 
Richards, Alice, 104, 331. 

Mary, 180. 

Capt. Samuel, 319. 
Riggs, Edward, 211, 220. 

John, 212. 

Samuel, 211, 212. 

Sarah, 222. 
Ripley, Alice, 515, 516, 519. 

David, 331. 

Dorothy, 32q-337- 

Elijah, 514, 515. 

H. W., 332, 334. 

Hezekiah, 32S-337. 

Joshua, 331. 

William, 331. 

William A., 336. 

William Chauncey, 335. 
Risley, Martha, 470. 

Nehemiah, 470. 
Robbins, Edward, 190. 

Rev. Royal, 190. 206, 208. 

Dr. Thomas, 175. 
Roberts, 449. 

Charles, 482, 483. 

Elias, 394. 

Emily Perkins, 499. 

Landlord, 490. 

Lucy, 491. 

Mindwell, 491. 

Mrs., 378. 

Rev. Nathaniel, 479. 
Robinson, Col. Beverly, 145. 

Faith, 3. 

Rev. John. 3, 13, 14. 

Marnida C. Butler, 304. 

Mrs. Rienzi, 304. 

Rev. William, 16. 
Rochambeau, Count de, 7, 9, 

275, 309, 476. 
Rockwell, 490. 

Mrs. Reuben, 49S. 
Rogers, James, 349. 
Root, John, 290. 

Jonathan, 308, 309. 

Joseph, 2S7, 290. 

Lydia, 290. 

Thomas, 290. 

Timothy, 307. 



INDEX. 



529 



Rose, Sharon, 48. 
Rossiter, Stephen, 4S2, 4S3. 
Rowland, Samuel, 332. 
Roys, Josiah, 486. 
Russell, Ann, 290. 

Sage, Col. Comfort, 5, 350. 

Jerusha, 288. 
Savage, James, 208. 
Sayre, Mr.. 72. 
Schenck, Elizabeth Hubbell 

Godfrey, 347. 
Schuyler, Gen. Philip J., 248, 

396, 440. 
Scofteld, 432, 433. 

Josephine, 446. 
Scott, Angeline, 421). 

Mary, 395. 

Richard, 395. 
Scudder, Elizabeth, 136. 
Seaward, Caleb, 44. 46. 

Submit, 48. 
Sedgwick, Capt., 495. 

Theodore, 36. 
Selleck, Rev. C. M., 425. 

Sally, 426. 427. 
Sention, Lois (St. John), 317. 

Mark, 317. 
Seymour, Amelia, 425. 

Mrs. Edward W., 278. 

Hannah, 310, 311. 

Captain Seth, 425. 

Mrs. Seth, 425. ■ 
Sharp, John, 132. 

William, 132. 
Shaw, Lucretia, 91-ioc . 

Mar)', 93. 

Nathaniel, 93-98, 100. 

Nathaniel, Jr., 91-100. 
Sheldon, Capt. Elisha, 266, 
269, 273. 

Lydia, 106, 118. 
Shepard, James, 396. 
Sherman, Benjamin, 38. 

Chloe, 39. 

Elizabeth, 40. 

Elizabeth Hariwell, 35. 

Major Isaac, 39. 

John, 39. 

Josiah, 38. 

-Mrs. Josiah, 38. 

Martha, 40. 

Mehitable, 40. 

Oliver, 40. 

Rebecca, 40. 

Rebecca Preston, 40. 

Roger. 31-42, 75. 



Sherman, Roger, Jr., 40. 

Sarah, 40. 

William, 33, 35, 39. 
Sherwood, Helen, 337. 
Shirley, Governor, 179. 
Silliman, Benjamin, 152, 154, 
162, 163, 166, 168-170. 

Benjamin D., 170, 171. 

Ebenezer, 154. 

General, 77. 

Gen, Gold Selleck, 149- 
172. 204, 332. 

Harriet Trumbull, 166. 

Mary, 149-172. 

Mrs., 168, 170, 171. 

Selleck, 159, 161, 169. 

William, IS4, 157, if>i, i''>7, 
168. 
Sillimandi, 134. 
Skinner, Doctor John, 39. 

Rev. Newton, 28 5. 

Roger Sherman. 40. 

Thomas, 482, 483. 
Slauson, Mr., 432. 
Sloper, Daniel, 305-314. 

Ezekiel, 312. 

Hannah, 310. 

Patience, 312. 

Silence, 312. 
Smalley, Anna, 290. 

Doctor, 285, 288, 2S9. 
Smedley, Col., 77. 
Smibert, 22S, 229. 
Smith, Abigail, 2SS. 

Catherine, 84. 

Concurrence, 48. 

Edward, 369, 370. 

Fountain, 421, 428. 

John Cotton, 218. 

Joshua, 450. 

LA'dia, 311J. 

Richard, 262. 

Major Simeon, 360. 

Mrs. Sterling, 235. 

Susannah, 267. 

Tabitha, 262. 
Southworth, Alice, 33 r. 
Spark, 446. 
Sparks, J., 121. 

Jared, 237, 272. 
Spencer, General, 51, 303. 
Sperry, Elizabeth E. W., 185. 
186. 

Ellsworth, 186. 

Mrs. Lewis, 185. 

Hon. Lewis, 186. 

Mary Elizabeth, 186. 



Squire, Israel, 48. 

Doctor Zephaniah, 492. 
Standish, Miles, 432. 
Stanley, Abigail, 198, 282, 
2S5. 

Anna, 282. 

Esther, 279-285. 

Esther Cowles, 2S2. 

Gad, 279-285, 289. 

Harriet A., 374. 

Job, 2S2. 

"Noah, 282, 283. 

Ruth, 282. 

Thomas, 282, 285. 

Timothy, 282. 
Stark, Molly, 312. 
Stebbins, Frances, 106. 
Stedman, Joseph, 469. 
Stephens, Mrs. Ann S. , 214- 

220 
Steuben, Baron, 232, 497. 
Stevens, Sarah, 304. 
Stiles, President, 103, iii. 
St. John, Hannah, 317. 

Josiah, 426, 427. 

Mrs. Josiah, 422, 424. 

Matthias, 317. 

Mrs. William, 42 1. 
Stocking. George, 290. 

Hannah, 290. 
Storrs, Dr. Richard S., 170. 
Stoughton, Capt. John, 21. 

Ruth Belden, 21. 
Stow, Freelove Baldwin, 329, 

.338-341- 
Jedediah, 339, 341. 
John, 339, 341. 
Samuel, 339. 
Sarah N., 341. 
Capt. Stephen, 329, 339- 

341- 
Strong, Experience, 48. 

John, 180. 

Rev. Timothy, 12. 
Stuart, Ellen M., 20. 

Gilbert, 224. 

I. W., 12, 16, 19, 520. 
Sturges, Judge, 77. 
Styles, Dr , 345. 
Sullivan, Gen., 7. 
Sumner, Charles, 414. 
Swift, Colonel, 31S. 

Mrs., 492. 
Symonds, Ashua, 470. 

Ruth, 470. 



53° 



INDEX. 



Talbot, Betsey, 2SS. 
Talcott, Gov., 317. 
Mary Kingsbury, 27. 
Rachel, 177. 
Tallmadge, Col. Bcnj., 257- 
27S. 
Benjamin, 435. 
F. S., 258, 274. 
Frederick Augustus, 277. 
Major, 77. 

Mar_v Floyd, 256-27S. 
Susannah, 260. 
Susannah Smith, 26S. 
Tarramugus, 44. 
Tarbox, Increase N., 135-148. 
Taylor, George, 510. 

David, 297. 
Tecumsch, 360. 
Terry, Dr., 12. 
Thaxter, Elizabeth, 331. 
Thompson, James, 4S6. 

Sarah, 296. 
Throop, Major Dyer, 51. 
Tibbals, Henr)-, 105. 
Mrs. J. W., 341. 
Mar}" Merwin, 341. 
Tiernay, Admiral, 7. 
Tilley, Elizabeth, 104. 

John, 104. 
Todd, Charles Burr, 75, 450. 

Susannah, 396. 
Tomlinson, Elizabeth, 212. 

Joseph, 235. 
Trask, John, 128. 
Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, 

126. 
Trumbull, 215, 443. 
("apt. Ammi, 321. 
David, II, 15. 
Mrs. David, 4. 
Faith, I, 3-16. 
J. Hammond, 208. 
John, II, 16, 166, 261, 321. 
Jonathan, 1-16, 39, 52, 6t, 
75.77,94,97,98,165,166, 
193, 202, 216, 244, 247, 
249, 268, 318, 321, 438, 
439, 471, 476, 516. 
Joseph, g, 321. 
Rev. Dr., 268. 
Sabra, 305, 321-324. 
Sabra Gaylord, 321. 
Sarah, 17. 
Tryon, Gen., 23, 67-75, m, 
119, 232. 246, 332, 351, 
406, 420-424, 428, 434, 
447, 448, 450. 



Turner, Maria Clap, 118. 
Tyler, Pres. John, 189. 

Underbill, John, 432, 433. 
Upham, Elizabeth Hall. 208. 

VanBuren, Pres. ^lartin, 189, 

360. 
Vanderpoel, Mrs. John A., 

265, 266, 278. 
VanWert, 271. 
Vinal, Mrs. W. Irving, 86. 

Wadhams, Jonathan, 486. 
Wadsworth, Abigail, 47, 50. 
Daniel, ii, 44. 
Faith (TruniiniU), 1 1. 
James, 31. 43-54. 245, 295, 

415, 440. 
James, Jr., 44, 200. 
John, 44. 
John Noyes, 48. 
Joseph, 44. 
Katherine, 54. 
Miss, 88. 
Ruth, 44, 48. 
Theodore, 312. 
William, 44, 49, 53. 
Wakeman, Rev. Samuel, 65. 
Wales, Nathaniel, Jr., 61. 
Walpole, Sir Robert, 461. 
Ward, Col. .Andrew, 252. 

Gen., 142. 
Warner, Andrew, 196, 197. 
Anna, 355. 
}Iannah, 358. 
Jabez, 355. 
Philip, 355, 358. 
Sally, 296. 
Warren, Gen.. 141, 142. 
Washington, Gen. George — 
" Brother Jonathan," 5 ; resigna- 
tion, 11; Mrs. Sherman, 3g; at Dur- 
ham, 45 ; Wadsworth's regiment, 
50; Tliaddeus I?urr, 67; at Fair- 
Held, 75 : Oliver Ellsworth, 81, 84 ; 
at Norwich, Q4 ; at New London, 
gS ; to Mary Wooster, 121 ; con- 
fidence in Gen. Putnam, 141, 143 ; 
letters to Putnam, 145-147 ; Gen. 
Silliman, 156; Ruth Hart, i8q ; at 
Stony Point, 203 ; David Hum- 
phreys, 2i5-2iq; at Cambridge, 
230; William Hull, 232; at New 
York, 251, 268, 271; at Morris- 
town, 252 ; Henj. Tallmadge, 257, 
26Q ; at Litchfield, 266; at Ger- 
mantown, 270 ; Andre, 272 ; letters 
to Tallmadge, 273 ; Capt. Stanley, 
284 ; at Waterbury and Rye, 294 ; 
at \Varren, Mass., 20S-300 ; at 



Washington, Gen. George — 

Southington,3o8; Fanning's Com- 
mission, 324 ; at Green's Farms, 
335 ; at Norwalk, 419, 425 ; at 
Stamford, 433; David Waterbury, 
439; his life guard, 442; his 
waiter, 470 ; at Orford and Mans- 
field, 476; at New Preston, 505; 
Nathan Hale, 516. 



144, 



433, 



39, 



438. 



Washington, Martha, 
312, 321, 416, 471. 
Mary, 415. 
Waterbury, Gen. David 

437-441, 445- 

Molly, 440, 441. 

Mr., 432. 

Mrs. Phineas, 427. 
Watkins, Mrs. L. B., 465 
Watson, Hannah, 463. 
Wayne, Gen. Anthony, 

203, 204, 232. 
Webb, 444. 

Col. Charles, 433, 437, 

Doctor, 438, 439. 

Colonel S. B., 24, 143. 
Webster, Daniel, .414. 

Emily, 84. 

Ephraim, 469. 

Noah, 84. 

William, 84. 
Weed, 433. 

Benjamin, 435. 

Prudence, 435-437. 
Welles, Gov. Thomas, 194, 

502. 
Wetmore, 499. 
Whalle}-, Judge, 211. 
Wheeler, Annie, 234. 

General [oseph, 233, 
Whitehead", Sybil, 428. 
Whiting, Colonel, 71. 

Rev. John, 1 17. 

Mar)', 103, 104, 117. 

Rev. Samuel, 104, 117. 
Whitmore, Mrs. F. G., 30. 

Harriet E., 30. 
Whitney, Col. David, 4S9. 
WHiittier, John G., 432, 443. 
Whittlesey, Anna, 502, 503. 

Doroth}' Kellogg, 502. 

Eliphalet, 502. 

Gould C, 508. 

Sarah Cogswell, 506. 
Wickham, Joseph, 369. 
Wilcox, Emily T., 411. 
Wildinan, A. M., 116, 120. 
Willard, Emma Hart, 403- 
411. 



234. 



INDEX. 



531 



Willard, Hannah, 331. 

Dr. John, 407. 

John H., 4og. 

Sarah H., 404. 411. 

Major Simon, 331, 332. 
Williams, Ezekiel, 84. 

Rev. John, 316. 

Mar_v"(Trumbull), 11, 15. 

Rev., 15, 271. 

Robert, 304. 

Samuel, 139, 304. 

Sarah, 304. 

Thomas. 180. 

Thomas Scott. 84. 

William, 11, 15, 304. 
Willink, Abraham, 34S. 

William, 348. 
Wilson, Lovina, 470. 

William, 470. 
Winchell, Daniel, 4S2, 483 
Winchester, Nathaniel, igg. 
\Vis\vall, Hannah, 3. 

Rev. Ichabod, 3. 
Wolcott, Abigail, 7g. 

Alexander, iSo. 

Capt., 351. 

Christopher, 177. 

Edward, 183. 

Elizabeth, 177, iSo, 186. 

Epaphras, 180. 

Erastus, 23, 173-1&6. 

Eunice, 79. 

Frederick, 182. 

Capt. Gideon, 186. 

Henry, 176, 177. 

Lieut. Henry, i8fi. 

Hepzibah, 180. 

fcrusha, 180. 

loanna, 177. 

John, 180. 



Wolcott, Josiah, 180. 
Mariann, t8o. 
Martha Pitkin, 173-186. 
May, 177. 
Gen. Oliver, 51, 173-182, 

201-204, 249, 2^0. 2f)6, 
267. ■ ■ 

Roger, 1S1-1S3. 

Gen. Roger, 471. 

Samuel, 180, 182, 185, 186. 

Sarah, 180, 225. 

Simon, 175-178, 183, 186. 

Sophia, 84. 

Ursula, 180, 182. 

William, 79, 177. 
Wood, Anne, 57. 

Antoinette Eno, 253. 

Joseph, 84. 

Rev. Luke, 1S6. 

Thomas, 57. 

Dr. William, 1S6. 
Woodall, Frances, 300. 
Woodbridge, Deodatus, 458, 

474, 476. 

Electa, 477. 

Esther, 476. 

Esther Wells, 475. 
Woodhull, Richard, 103. 
Woodruff, Abigail, 310. 

Daniel, 310, 313. 

David, 310. 

Ebenezer, 310. 

Mrs. Emily, 402, 403, 411. 

Emily A., 400. 

Hannah, 290, 305-314. 

Hezekiah, 310. 

John, 290, 310. 

Jonathan, 310. 

Lydia, 310. 

Mary, 290. 



Woodruff, Matthew, 290, 310. 

Rachel, 310. 

Rebekah, 310. 

Rhoda, 310. 

Ruth, 310. 

Samuel, 310. 
Wooster, Charles Francis, 
106. 

Charles Whiting, 106, 118. 

David, 101-116, 118, 351. 

433- 
Edward, 118. 
Elizabeth, 344. 
General, 111-113, 1 15-120, 

122-124, 159, 294, 31S, 

396. 
Lvdia Sheldon, 118. 
Madam, 112, 114, 115, 117- 

119, 121-123. 
Mary, 106, 117-124. 
Mary (Clap), 101-116. 
Mrs., 104, III. 
Capt. Thomas, 106, 108, 

117, 118. 
Wright, Prof. A. W., 166. 

Freedom, 490. 
Wyllys, George, 17-30, 193, 

194, 202, 240, 244, 249, 

3i«. 
Hezekiah, 17-30. 
John Palsgrave, 17-30. 
Major, 268. 
Ruth (Belden), 17-30. 
Gen. Samuel, 17-30, 250. 

Young, 207. 

Youngs, Judge Benj., 365. 

Deborah, 365, 366. 

Colonel John, 369. 

Re\'. John, 365, 369. 



XI 38 










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